DDMP have not been updated from many districts in State

As per the Disaster Management Act 2005, it is mandatory to prepare and revise the District Disaster Management Plan (DDMP) of each district in the state on yearly basis, has not been updated from past two years from many districts in State.

These plans aims to continuous and integrated process of planning, organizing, coordinating and implementing measures which are necessary at district level to manage any kind disaster situations.

According to the statistics provided by the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) only Mandya, Bijapur, Bagalkot and Raichur have updated the plan and other districts are in the process of reviewing the plans for the year 2012-13.

As per the Disaster Management Act 2005, once the plan is prepared, it has to be reviewed annually. But many of the district administration have not taken any measures to update the plan. The officials in the SDMA are writing letters reminding the officials to update the plan.

These plans are aiming to identify hazards, vulnerability and risk involves in the districts based on which proper planning needs to prepare considering cyclic process of disaster management such as mitigation, preparedness, response and rehabilitation. And also create awareness among community/public about risks involved with different disasters and measures to be taken in the respective locations. Hence it is very much essential to timely review and update DDMPs of the entire district to reduce the disaster risks.

Dr R Dharmaraju of Center for Disaster Management (CDM) at Administrative Training Institute Mysore said that as per the guidelines provided in the Disaster Management Act, consultative workshops have been conducted in all the districts in the state for preparation of DDMPs by CDM. Now all the districts have District Disaster Management Plan and further it is the responsibility of the district administrations to review the plans every year.

Even DDMP of Mysore have not been updated from past two years. When contacted Mysore District Deputy Commissioner PS Vastrad in this regard he said that measures will be taken to update the plan in the coming days. Meantime, the officials of SDMA claim that they are in a better position in implementation of Disaster Management Act.