'India is championing Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infra', MHA Shah establishes centrality in tackling disasters

New Delhi, November 05: "India is championing a coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure under PM Modi's vision", said MHA Amit Shah while inaugurating the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Joint Exercise on Urban Earthquake Search and Rescue, in New Delhi.

 

Eextending warm greetings to all delegates from the SCO nations, Shah informed that India attached special importance to SCO as an excellent platform for synergizing the efforts of all member States in the field of multilateral, political, security, economic and people-to-people interaction in the region.

 

 

Further he also said that PM Modi gave 'HEALTH' mantra for SCO Members for cooperation in 6 areas. "We should strengthen mutual cooperation on issues in six areas which are Healthcare cooperation, Economic Cooperation, Alternate Energy, Literature and Culture, Terrorism-Free Society and Humanitarian Cooperation", he said.

 

Bringing the importance of this joint exercise in perspective, the Home Minister said that during 1996-2015, more than 3 lakh people had lost their lives due to natural calamities. Earthquakes had taken more than 2 lakh lives, which account for two-thirds of disaster related mortality in SCO countries.

"This joint exercise will be very useful for improving the collective preparedness and building a common understanding of internationally recognized procedures to co-ordinate post-earthquake responses", he said further adding that this joint exercise with SCO member states would be helpful in developing personal understanding amongst counterpart teams.

Speaking on India’s efforts in this direction, Shah noted that India was making concerted efforts for strengthening our response capabilities and taking focused steps. "Our National Disaster Management Plan was launched in 2016. All our 28 States, 09 Union Territory and 90 per cent of our districts have completed their disaster management plan", he said.

 

"Now, efforts are on to revise this National Plan which has taken in to consideration not only the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction but the Sustainable Development Goals and Agreement on climate change also", he added.