In a key move towards strengthening the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) following the experience of dealing with the Jammu and Kashmir floods, the Narendra Modi government has chosen specialists in disaster management as its members.
Considered a move away from the usual practice of appointing retired bureaucrats and politicians, the government chose three field experts from among 80-odd applicants for the reconstituted body, which is headed by the Prime Minister.
Sources say the government is likely to issue in a couple of days the order appointing Kamal Kishore, a disaster management expert with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); D.N. Sharma, Director of the Health Safety and Environment Group at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC); and Lieutenant-General (retired) N.C. Marwah.
Mr. Kishore is a programme adviser to the Disaster Reduction and Recovery Team of the UNDP.
Mr. Sharma heads the umbrella unit comprising the health physics division, the radiation safety systems division, the radiological physics and advisory division, the industrial hygiene and safety section and the environmental monitoring and assessment section of BARC. He has been working with the NDMA for several years.
Lt. Gen. Marwah was chief of the Integrated Defence Staff of the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee.
“Doing away with the practice of recruiting ‘loyalists,’ the government made its intentions of recruiting experts clear over a month ago when it invited applications from only those with expertise in the area of disaster management,” a government official said.
