J C Pant committee On Disaster Management

United Nations had declared 1990s as Decade of Natural Disaster Reduction. It called upon nations to formulate national disaster-mitigation programmes, as well as economic, land use and insurance policies for disaster prevention, and to integrate them fully into their national development programmes.

In India, the phrase disaster management does not find place in any of the lists of the 7th schedule. So far, the primary responsibility for the management of disaster has been of the state governments with assistance from the central government as per the recommendations of the Finance Commission.

In a sort of firsts, the National Centre for Disaster Management (NCDM) was established in 1995. This centre later became the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM). The responsibility for handling disasters remained with the Ministry of Agriculture till 2001. However, in August 1999, the government of India set up a High Powered Committee under the chairmanship of Mr. J. C. Pant. This was just prior to the devastating cyclone in Odisha. The J C Pant committee recommended the setting up of a Disaster Management Ministry, but this did not fructify in the form recommended.

Thereafter in February 2001, just after the Gujarat earthquake, an All Party National Committee on Disaster Management was set up under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister. This committee recommended the creation of the NDMA under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and therefore in June 2002, in deference to the recommendations of the Pant committee, the responsibility of handling Disaster Management was transferred to the MHA. Later the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami shook the conscience of the nation and the government decided to enact a law on disaster management to provide for requisite institutional mechanism for drawing up and monitoring the implementation of the disaster management plans, ensuring measures by various wings of Government for prevention and mitigating effects of disasters and for undertaking a holistic, coordinated and prompt response to any disaster situation.

The Disaster Management Act, 2005 was enacted and notified on December 26, 2005