Amphan Timely Lesson for the States to Modernize the Infrastructure, Focus on the Disaster of Government, Says NDRF Chief

Super cyclone Amphan was a timely lesson that we cannot take risks more. The peoples have to make cyclone-resistant structures, even if they are hutments of the poor, especially in coastal areas. Housing schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana should incorporate cyclone-proof design.

Another requirement is underground electrification in rural areas and in coastal locations. I know it may not be cost-effective, but not the technology, it is so to start with; you have to push to do this, the director-general of the Response Force of National Disaster, said in an interview.

A total of 86 people were killed and lakhs of people were left homeless as the cyclone cut a swathe through half a dozen districts of West Bengal, including state capital Kolkata, on May 20. The fierce wind blew away from ranches, flattened kutcha houses, and uprooted thousands of trees and electric poles.

Amphan also affected nearly 45 lakh people and damaged a large number of dwellings in the coastal districts of neighbouring Odisha.

Pradhan said the road clearance is more than 90 percent complete in the most severely affected districts of West Bengal, where the 38 NDRF teams have been deployed, including 19 only in Kolkata.

Between the villages and the nearest city connectivity has been largely restored and even in the South 24-Parganas, which was

among the most affected districts, a large amount of traffic is now on the roads. But, the reconstruction of kutcha houses in rural areas will take time, he said.

The top NDRF official said that many people have begun to return from shelters and the repair of their own houses.

Pradhan said more NDRF teams have moved from rural districts to Calcutta, where protests over the power and water supply disruption have been raging in several areas during the past few days.

Complete normalcy in the state is still a day or two away, he said.

The director general said that the Covid-19 pandemic compounds the challenge of moving people to safety and saving lives as the cyclone fell to the West of Bengal and Orissa.

“I must admit that it was very hard. We had No other option, but to herd people to the shelters and they were not in a position at that time to observe the safety precautions, such as social distancing.”

“However, what we did was the next best thing to do and that is to sanitize the shelters, separate people into small groups, each group keep a safe distance from the others and make them wear masks. Our first objective was to carry the vulnerable people to safety and then follow Covid protocols,” Pradhan said.

In the reports of a NDRF personnel testing positive for Covid-19, I said that it was a case and should not be cause for concern, as the federal contingency force has put in place strict security protocols since January.

Pradhan said with cyclones becoming more regular, even in the summers, its high time for states to turn their attention to disaster governance.

“There can be No compromise on the disaster of government at any cost. The state governments should be treated as a rule and not a

exception. If a state is good in cases of disaster of government, it will be good in the general government, and not the other way around. It is imperative that their crisis management teams are fully trained and prepared before a disaster as cyclone strikes,” the senior official said.