State Govt. Seeks National Disaster Management Authority Support For PDNA
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Keeping in view the extent of extensive damage caused across the state during the current monsoon season, particularly in the month of July and August, and to further work on recovery and reconstruction works thereafter, the Government of Himachal Pradesh requested the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India to assist the State Government in conducting Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) in the State. The PDNA exercise after any disaster generally helps the governance system to evaluate the material damage and economic loss so as to identify the immediate, short-term, and long-term needs of the affected areas, and make them effective recovery and reconstruction plans.
In the first phase, PDNA carried out the exercise for the worst affected districts like Chamba, Mandi, Kullu, Kinnaur, Shimla and Solan districts, followed by the remaining six districts of the state namely Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Sirmaur, Lahaul and Spiti and Una. The entire exercise has been undertaken with the help of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and today an online training was conducted for the district administration of Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Sirmaur, Lahaul and Spiti and Una districts in which all senior level functionaries participated. HPPWD, JSV, Power, Agriculture, Horticulture, Tourism, Health, Education and Social Welfare participated. The training was imparted by the NDMA team comprising of experts from various fields.
The training programme was chaired by Shri D.C. Rana, IAS, Director-cum-Special Secretary (Revenue Department-Disaster Management), Government of Himachal Pradesh and Shri Kunal Satyarthi, IFS, Joint Secretary (PP) NDMA, Government of India, New Delhi. The main objective of today’s training was to inform the district-level officers to assess the damage and loss in different areas in their respective districts and collect the data and upload it on the online platform.
Director-cum-Special Secretary, D.C. Rana in his opening remarks highlighted the importance of this exercise which is being carried out for the first time after any disaster situation in the State. He urged all the district-level teams to make the best use of this opportunity as it will help the state government in getting funding support from the Government of India or any other international funding agency for which the PDNA document will prepare the baseline data. Kunal Satyarthi, Joint Secretary, NDMA also informed the participants that a similar exercise was done after the Joshimath disaster, and which is now being done for Himachal Pradesh as well. So this is the best opportunity for the state government to seek external help to strengthen its recovery and reconstruction efforts.
