There was a crack response plan in place, on paper, for 7 months

And when Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said today that the government was considering enacting a law to set up a National Disaster Management Authority, he was merely dusting off this proposal that his Ministry has been sitting on.

In fact, a Cabinet note had been finalised on setting up of this authority.

And the Home Ministry even conducted two ‘‘dry runs’’ at the BSF camp in Chhawala in Delhi to test the response of paramilitary forces to a possible quake or a dirty bomb.

This exercise was attended by Deputy National Security Advisor Satish Chandra, then Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister V K Aatre and the Home Secretary.

Put in the cold storage since then, the tsunami has now revived it. Although Patil today gave no details on the authority, the May note envisaged:

• An emergency response team, of 3000 personnel drawn from CRPF, ITBP and CISF, on perpetual standby, backed by dedicated air support and equipment, in the four metros.

• An online inventory system, where relief material including medicines and supplies would be stocked in major cities to tackle any calamity within a short notice.

• The online inventory would be updated on a weekly basis.

• Alternative or fall-back communication options, including VSAT links, in case the disaster rendered land channels infructuous like in the case of the tsunami tragedy.

The fact is that the worst affected Andamans and Nicobar Islands did not have any satellite link and it was only after the tidal wave struck that the CMG headed by Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi decided to send eight sets of satellite phones to the Island Territories.

Even the IAF base in Car Nicobar did not have a satellite phone and had to rely on a high frequency set to communicate with Chennai. It was only after the tragedy that the Air Chief send a sat-phone to the Car Nicobar base commander.

While Patil has now hinted the revival of the proposal, the Prime Minister’s Office is toying with the idea of moving the Disaster Management system out of the Home Ministry and make it an inter-ministerial set-up. The PMO is exploring various disaster-management systems in other countries including the office of emergency preparedness in the United States.