New Delhi: Revamping the country’s main disaster management body, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the Union government made the first three appointments of area experts as its members.
The NDMA had earlier been a parking lot for retired politicians and bureaucrats under the previous UPA government.
The Centre cleared the names of Kamal Kishore, a UNDP disaster reduction expert, Lt. Gen. N.C. Marwah (Retd.), and Dr D.N. Sharma, health, safety and environment group director at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), as members of NDMA.
Mr Kishore is UNDP’s New York-based adviser for disaster reduction and recovery and is posted at its crisis prevention and prevention bureau. He has been involved with formulating the post-disaster recovery framework in several countries, including India and Pakistan.
Dr Sharma, from BARC, had worked with NDMA earlier and helped it draft guidelines for safety in radiation-related areas.
The third member, Lt. Gen. Marwah, was chief of integrated defence staff to the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.
Government sources said that the three were chosen from a list of 82 names drawn up after the Union home ministry invited applications from subject experts. A formal order on their appointment is likely shortly, sources said.
A taskforce headed by former agriculture secretary P.K. Mishra, now additional principal secretary to the PM, suggested making the NDMA less “top heavy” and more professional.
