Amit Shah reviews flood preparedness, calls for better Centre-state coordination

New Delhi: Home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday reviewed the country’s preparedness to deal with floods in wake of the monsoon and called for better synergy between the Central and state agencies to create a permanent system for forecasting floods and monitoring the rise in water levels in major catchment areas of the country.
At the high-level meeting chaired by him to review the long-term measures to be prescribed as part of a comprehensive policy to mitigate the perennial flood problem, Shah took a slew of decisions to have a new system of coordination among the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Jal Shakti Ministry, Central Water Commission (CWC) and NDRF.
The meeting was attended by Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, MoS (home) Nityanand Rai, Member Secretary NDMA, Director Generals of IMD and NDRF, CWC chairman, CWC and senior officers of the concerned ministries.
Shah advised the Jal Shakti ministry to work out a mechanism for desilting of large dams, which will help in increasing dam storage capacity and help in flood control. IMD and CWC, he said, could use state-of-the-art technology and satellite data for more accurate weather and flood predictions.
The home minister instructed that a standard operating procedure be formulated to broadcast IMD warnings on lightning strikes to the public at the earliest through TV, FM Radio, SMS and other mediums. He also sought maximum publicity for various mobile apps related to weather forecasting like 'Umang', 'Rain Alarm' and 'Damini', developed by the IMD, so that the maximum members of the public could benefit.
Damini app puts out warnings about lightning strikes three hours in advance.
Shah advised that studies be conducted through satellite application on the increasing strain on the country’s river systems. He directed the CWC, IMD and NDRF to continuously monitor the water level and flood situation in rivers and send regular reports to the MHA. He also directed DG NDRF to immediately hold meetings with the heads of the SDRF in flood-prone states.
As directed by the home minister in the flood review meeting held on July 3 last year, the CWC has started to issue five-day advance inflow forecast for all the reservoirs in the country. Shah directed the Ministry of Jal Shakti and CWC to further set up an empowered group of experts for providing practical guidance to dam authorities for taking timely and advance action for release of water.
IMD and CWC chiefs made presentations at the meeting, sharing details of the follow-up action on decisions taken at last year’s meeting. They also briefed on the improvement in weather and flood forecasting techniques.
Ganga and the Brahmaputra are main flood basins of India and Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the most flood prone states.