Disaster Management (Recent Disasters and their Management) by Rajvardhan

Model Answer

Question #1. With the urban sprawl and burgeoning population pressure in cities, urban fire accidents are becoming a norm. In this context, critically analyze the effectiveness of the present institutional framework for fire prevention in India. Suggest measures to overcome these constraints.

Approach:

• The question focuses on urban fire disasters. You need to establish the link between disaster and population pressure in cities.
• The tone of the question is critical ( you need to highlight the issues associated with existing institutional framework)
• Introduce by summarising the spike in fire disasters.
• Provide institutional framework. ( National building code 2016)
• Conclude accordingly.

Hints:

It's not just climate change that's making the disasters worse, it's the increased building within areas deemed particularly vulnerable to fire. Maharashtra and Gujarat, our two most highly urbanised states, account for about 30% of the country’s fire accident deaths.

The vulnerabilities to fire hazards have become more complex because of the rapid and unplanned urbanisation over the world. The structural irregularities, unpreparedness, violation of safety norms and inaccessibility.

Institutional framework:

• National Building Code, 2016
  • It is an instrument at national level, providing guidelines for regulating the building construction activities across the country. It serves as a model code for adoption by agencies involved in construction of buildings. The code has been divided into 3 parts:

• The National Fire Service College, Nagpur provides training and education.
• Many states have established Fire & Emergency Services through a statutory Act. These acts were based on the Model Fire Service Bill circulated by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• Similarly, in some states, municipal corporations and local bodies are responsible for providing fire services.

Issues in institutional framework to prevent urban fire in India

• Response time: Fire and emergency services, across the country, though trained to respond at the earliest, suffer from restricted access, encroachments and traffic congestion.
• Enforcement of building bye laws, planning and zoning norms: The improper enforcement of laws and regulations by the civic authorities is at the root of numerous fire outbreaks in India.
• Apathy and information: The residents are little bothered about their safety and are often found to be violating the fire safety norms and regulations. Issues like obstruction of exits, storage of highly flammable materials, etc. also arise due to the casual attitude of people.
• Lack of infrastructure: There also have been several complaints regarding the inefficiency of the fire rescue team due to the lack of proper infrastructure.

Suggestions to overcome fire accidents in urban areas

• Strengthening guidelines and policy framework: Strict adherence to available norms of electrical load management for new constructions. Encouraging use of low voltage lights in place of incandescent lights.
• Enforcement of fire safety norms and regulations: Proper evaluation and scrutiny before the sanction and renewal of the permits, licenses, approvals, NOCs, etc.
• Upgradation of fire-fighting equipment and infrastructure: The local fire departments need to upgrade the fire-fighting equipment and infrastructure according to the NDMA Guideline on Scaling, Type of Equipment, and Training of Fire Services.
• Mainstreaming of fire risks mitigation and management in urban planning and development: Incorporation of assessment of vulnerabilities and risks to fire at all levels. The fire safety provisions are available at building level design, but no specific fire norms at area level are present in the urban and regional planning guidelines
• Building community resilience: The communities being the first responder play an indispensable role in case of a fire outbreak.
• Creating awareness among the public: Conduction of sensitization and awareness programmes for the urban residents and other stakeholders regarding the prevalent urban fire risks.

Conclusion:

The present scenario demands a paradigm shift from firefighting to fire prevention by ensuring the involvement of all stakeholders. It is thus imperative to learn the lessons from the previous incidents and reduce the risks of urban fire by addressing the underlying cause.

Question #2. It is found that compensations to the people affected by natural calamities and disasters are minimalistic and need to be reviewed. In this context, discuss the significance of Budget allocation for the Disaster Resilience Strategy and analyze the challenges and issues in the allocations.

Approach:

• The question focuses on compensation and budgetary allocation for disaster resilience
• The perspective of question is analytical
• Introduce by writing the compensation formula existed in India.
• Analyse the significance, challenges and issues in budgetary allocation
• Conclude it.

Hints:

The State Government is primarily responsible for providing necessary relief measures in the wake of natural calamities. For undertaking compensation relief measures, funds are available with the State Government in the form of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).

Firstly, list of items and norms of assistance from SDRF and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for 2010-15 and 2015-20 is outdated, so needs to be revised.

Second, some of the compensation listed in the norms is highly inadequate. For example, under the 2015-20 guidelines, Rs 3,200 is given as compensation for partially damaged kuchcha houses and Rs 95,100 for fully damaged kuchcha houses. However, no one gets Rs 95,100 as compensation and Rs 3,200 is highly inadequate for restoring even a kutcha house.

Significance of Budget allocation for the Disaster Resilience Strategy

Proper budget allocations for disasters have the potential to increase welfare by increasing national savings, reducing exposure to risk and promoting mitigation prior to a loss. Those ways can also contribute to aggregate fiscal stability over the long term.

1. Building resilient information systems and records: PFM (Public Financial Management ) institutions can prepare information systems and digital records to respond to and continue to operate following disasters. Having robust backup routines and adequate arrangements for the continuity of data centers are critical to improved disaster resilience.
2. To ensure appropriate institutional arrangements in place: While natural hazards are unavoidable, appropriate regulatory and institutional arrangements for disaster resilient and responsive PFM (DRR-PFM) can help mitigate their impacts.
3. Planning and budgeting: Ministries of finance should proactively assess risks and help ensure that funding mechanisms are available to address the foreseeable impacts of disaster events. Effective planning and budgeting can reduce the exposure of people and assets to disasters and improve resilience.
4. Preparing procurement plans ahead of time: Governments can prepare procurement plans during normal operating conditions to be ready when disasters hit. This includes market research, sourcing strategies, and framework agreements. Governments can also use expedited procurement procedures and training programs to be effectively implemented when needed.
5. Ensuring transparency and accountability: When disasters strike, governments have to act expeditiously to provide relief for affected populations and restore services. Governments should demonstrate that funds are allocated fairly and support those most in need.

Challenges and issues in the Budget allocation for the Disaster Resilience Strategy

• Disaster risk reduction component is not being included in other departments like rural housing.  Only these departments can prioritise houses for people, who seem to be the most vulnerable from disasters, such as those living in coastal regions.
• MGNREGA scheme can provide relief to affected people as well as the disaster hit areas. However, it is also unfortunate that the allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been consistently reduced in the last few budgets. This is despite the fact that there has been significant demand for work under MGNREGA after the loss of livelihoods post COVID-19 and post-natural disasters.
• Inadequate funds being earmarked for urban employment programmes. In the post disaster situation, there is always a huge outflow of internal migrants. Urban employment programmes need to be encouraged in those disaster affected states.
• DRR and climate change adaptation resources are not provided to the Panchayats, blocks and districts to plan and implement programmes in a localised manner. Vulnerable population groups such as women, children, uncared-for elderly people, those with disabilities and others should be the focus.

Way forward:

• The state allocations for SDRF are not enough, so need to increase them.
• There is a need to bring uniformity of compensation across the country.
• Allocation provided under National Coastal Mission and MoEFCC should be used to protect the livelihoods of fisher folk and also the mangroves in the Sundarbans. The West Bengal government has already set up a mangrove resource centre to study and raise mangrove forests.
• Recently, PM Awas Yojana has got an allocation of Rs. 48,000 crore but this needs to be prioritized for ecologically sensitive zones by building disaster-resilient houses.
• More than 90 percent of survey respondents wanted to work for more than 100 days under MGNREGA. There is an immediate need to increase the number of working days.
• The wage rate had to be increased at least up to the local average agriculture labour wage.

Conclusion:

Achieving SDG 13 requires urgent actions to combat climate change. This requires reevaluating grant infrastructure projects in ecologically fragile areas. The focus should shift to villages, towns, and other locations in states which are affected by disasters every year. There is a need to speed up relief distribution and rehabilitation, and also enhance compensation amounts. To add to this, disaster-resilient houses and social security safety nets should be built.