‘Stick to provisions of NDMA 2005 through SDMA’ – NPCC

Dimapur, May 27 (EMN): Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) has on Thursday stated that the state government was guilty of failing to ‘inspire confidence in the people’ by concealing the order of constituting an advisory panel’ to the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) and State Executive Committee (SEC).

NPCC has urged the state government to stick to provisions of NDMA 2005 through SDMA “instead of duplicating works through HPC, as decisions taken by HPC are not legally enforceable if one goes by the law.

In a statement issued on Thursday, it said that the ‘three names on the panel of experts, who are all from outside the state and will be communicating virtually, leaves much to be desired’.

“A situation may arise when the advisory panel, bereft of understanding real time ground situation may become counterproductive in our battle against this pandemic. Therefore, more eminent people from the state who can contribute effectively must be included in the advisory panel for effective monitoring and controlling this raging pandemic situation,” the statement read.

NPCC accused the state govt. of relying on ‘adhocism’ ever since the pandemic induced lockdown began last year.

“When the provisions of the National Disaster Management Act, 2005 was invoked for the first time on March 24, 2020, it automatically meant the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister and the State Executive Committee (SEC) headed by Chief Secretary were to take full control of the extraordinary situation. However, contrary to provisions of National Disaster Management Act (2005), an ‘Empowered Committee’ headed by an Additional Chief Secretary was entrusted for over two months. It was only on June 2 that the state cabinet constituted a High Powered Committee (HPC) headed by Chief Minister which has been functioning till today. By deviating from the provisions of NDMA to have HPC instead of SDMA taking control, whether intentional or out of ignorance, the state govt has only exposed its shortcomings and ill preparedness from the very beginning,” it read.

 It further stated that the state government has "preferred to act through HPC rather than constitutionally mandated SDMA. This deviation from the provisions of National Disaster Management Act, 2005 at the top by state govt. goes down to the level of some villages and colonies enforcing their own lockdown rules, thereby making a mockery of the entire system,” it read.