District Disaster Management Authority meeting not held during landslides

Kovar Kolli Indresh

Bengaluru, Mar. 29; The Comptroller and Auditor General of India have revealed that even though a massive landslide occurred in Kodagu in 2018-19, causing loss of life and property worth crores of rupees, the District Disaster Management Authority never met. This is not just a Kodagu issue, the Auditor General's report has revealed that the Disaster Management Authority did not even hold a meeting in many districts of the state. The CAG, which has conducted a thorough analysis of the functioning of disaster management in Karnataka, has found the state government's gross negligence in disaster management. It has been learned that Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda did not hold a meeting with the officials regarding this report.

According to the Disaster Management Act, 2005, a Disaster Management Authority (DMA) has been constituted at the district, state and national levels comprising officials and public representatives. The District Level Authority is headed by the District Commissioner, the Zilla Panchayat President is also the Chairman, and the District Heads of the Zilla Panchayat, Revenue, Health, Police, Forest, Public Works and Agriculture Departments are members. When a disaster occurs, the Authority meets immediately to take necessary action and take precautionary measures to prevent further danger in the district. And if further assistance is required, the State Disaster Management Authority can be brought to its notice and assistance can be obtained. Also, the proceedings of the meeting should be brought to the notice of the State Authority. The fact that the Disaster Management Authority did not hold a single meeting even when a landslide occurred in Kodagu in the second week of August 2018, killing 18 people and leaving hundreds homeless, is a blatant example of the officials’ gross negligence. The Auditor General’s report has documented the dereliction of duty by the officials in the disasters that occurred in the Western Ghats region, mainly in Kodagu, Uttara Kannada and Kerala states, in 2018-19. It is learnt that the CAG report has explained that the DDMA did not meet even when Kodagu district was hit by severe floods and landslides in 2018-19.

From the first term of Siddaramaiah to the 4th page of the BJP government

till the tenure (2017-18 to 2022-23), the District Disaster Management Authorities in the districts of Belagavi, Chikkaballapur, Dakshina Kannada, Davangere, Haveri, Kalaburgi, Kodagu, Ramanagara and Shivamogga of the state did not hold regular meetings. In the last 7 years, only 5 meetings were held in Kodagu, while 12 meetings were held in Belagavi district. 5 meetings were held in Chikkaballapur, 28 meetings were held in Dakshina Kannada. But not a single meeting was held in Davangere district. 12 meetings were held in Haveri, 12 times in Ramanagara, and 11 times in Shivamogga. The District Disaster Management Authority did not provide any information to the CAG about how many meetings were held in Kalburgi.

Only Dakshina Kannada and Ramanagara districts have held DDMA meetings consistently in all the years. The DDMA of Belgaum did not meet even once in 2018-19. And despite the district being hit by various disasters year after year, it met only once in 2017-18, 2020-21 and 2021-22. The audit found that the DDMAs of the sample districts had not constituted any advisory committees, as required under Section 28(1) of the DM Act, except for Dakshina Kannada, which has committees for oil spills and rapid response. Some of the district disaster management authorities had prepared district plans during the period 2017-18 to 2022-23 and sent them to the state authority. However, the state disaster management authority had not even reviewed these plans and had not even approved the plans. Many departments in the districts had not prepared disaster management plans. But the government had replied that the district plans were prepared in consultation with the concerned departments. But the state government has no evidence to support the fact that the district plans were prepared in consultation with the concerned departments.

The Revenue Department had replied to the Accountant General that out of the 6,300 Gram Panchayats in the state, 2,250 Gram Panchayats had prepared disaster plans. But no plans were available in the physical records of the district and taluk offices that were presented for audit. Similarly, the CAG has found through examination of the records that except for some private hospitals in Bangalore City district, none of the hospitals and educational institutions in the state, except for some private hospitals in the districts under audit, had prepared the required disaster management plans.

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