HYDERABAD: The state government has been asked to mobilise a state disaster management force on the lines of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) at the earliest to effectively handle emergency situations and natural disasters.

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) member and Congress legislator M Shashidhar Reddy told reporters on Sunday that NDMF, comprising nearly 8,000 paramilitary personnel, was being trained to tackle emergency situations arising out of several types of disasters with state-of-the-art gadgets.

A similar team at the state level would ensure that they effectively respond to disasters and each member of the team has well-defined roles and responsibilities, he said.

These forces, comprising eight battalions from the Central Reserve Police Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the Border Security Force, would be positioned in Pune (Maharashtra), Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh), Arrankonam (TM), Barasat (WB), Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Guwahati (Assam), Mundali (Orissa) and Chandigarh (Punjab & Haryana).

Around 15 regional response centres will be set up across the country including one in Andhra Pradesh, Reddy added.

Reddy said NDMA would soon formulate a national policy with detailed guidelines for providing minimum standards of relief to persons affected by disasters like cyclones, earthquakes, industrial and chemical disasters and drought in all states and union territories.

He said NDMA identified 169 hazard-prone districts in the country of which 70 were coastal districts that are prone to cyclones. Reddy said only four of the 13 cyclone-prone coastal and Island states and Union Territories responded to the cyclone risk mitigation project.

Expressing unhappiness at the fact that the state government did not submit a proposal to NDMA for cyclone risk mitigation, the NDMA member appealed the government to form a State Disaster Management Authority so that disaster management practices could be put in place.

He said the need of the hour is to establish a community based disaster relief management. Reddy also wanted the district management teams to be formed in order to address the vulnerability of different parts of the state, initiate measures for prevention and mitigation, apart from determining the roles and responsibilities of each department.

Taking a dig at the coastal district administrative authorities for neglecting the cyclone relief shelters and abandoning them as soon as the crisis ended, Reddy called upon people to show greater involvement in the whole process of disaster management.