Disaster management plan should have been drafted into Act: HC

Chennai, Aug 30 (PTI) The Madras High Court today observedthat a disaster management plan should have been drafted intothe provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 a longtime ago and had that been done, possibly the situation whicharose in December last in Chennai could have been avoided. The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay KishanKaul and Justice R Mahadevan, was hearing a batch of petitionsfinding fault with the state government with regard to therelease of excess water from Chemberubakkam reservoir duringthe rains in December first week last year. When the pleas came up, an affidavit was filed by theRevenue Department. The bench said the affidavit only states that "as perthe mandate of Section 23(1) of the Disaster Management Act,2005, the draft State Disaster Management Plan was preparedduring 2010 which was shared with the National DisasterManagement Authority and thereafter, updated by the NationalDisaster Management of Anna Institute of Management as per theNational Disaster Management Authority guidelines". "The fact remains that after six years, the plan is stillat the draft stage. The Disaster Management Plan should havebeen drafted into the provisions of the said Act a long timeago and had that been done, possibly the situation which aroselast year in December could have been avoided," it said. On an affidavit filed by PWD, the bench said there werecontradictory statements and observed that there wasreluctance to take action against encroachments on Adyar andCooum rivers and Buckingham canal. It said the affidavits filed by the authorities concernedwere unacceptable to it. "We are thus of the view that keeping in mind all theaforesaid aspects, a better affidavit needs to be filed onbehalf of the authorities concerned. The affidavit should befiled within a week," it said. The bench directed the high court registry to post all thematters relating to "water areas" before it and posted thematter for further hearing to September 7. PTI CORR BNSCNTR