The National Executive Committee and the Crisis Machinery

In one line

Below the Prime Minister's authority sits the machinery that actually works: a committee of Secretaries chaired by the Home Secretary, a crisis committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, and a Minister's committee that releases the money.

In the wording a student can write in an examination: section 8 of the Disaster Management Act 2005 requires the Central Government to constitute a National Executive Committee to assist the National Authority, consisting of the Secretary of the Ministry having administrative control of disaster management as Chairperson ex officio and the Secretaries of fifteen named Ministries and the Chief of the Integrated Defence Staff of the Chiefs of Staff Committee ex officio; section 8A, inserted in 2025, gives statutory form to the National Crisis Management Committee under the Cabinet Secretary; section 8B to the High Level Committee under the Minister in charge; section 9 provides for sub-committees; and section 10 sets out the powers and functions of the National Executive Committee, including coordination of response and directions where a disaster affects more than one State.

Section 8, the National Executive Committee

When. The Central Government constitutes it immediately after the notification establishing the National Authority under section 3(1).

The Chairperson. The Secretary to the Government of India in charge of the Ministry or Department having administrative control of disaster management, ex officio. In practice that is the Union Home Secretary.

The members, ex officio, and the list is examinable. The Secretaries of the Ministries or Departments having administrative control of agriculture, atomic energy, defence, drinking water supply, environment and forests, finance (expenditure), health, power, rural development, science and technology, space, telecommunication, urban development and water resources, and the Chief of the Integrated Defence Staff of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.

Fifteen offices, and the composition is the argument. A disaster is not a subject; it is a demand on every subject at once. Water, power, telecommunications, health, roads and defence are each somebody else's department in ordinary times, and the Committee exists so that in a disaster they sit in one room.

Others. The Chairperson may invite any other officer of the Central or a State Government to a meeting. The Committee's powers, functions and procedure are prescribed by the Central Government in consultation with the National Authority.

Section 9, sub-committees. The Committee may constitute one or more sub-committees as it considers necessary, appointing a Chairperson from among its own members, and an expert associated with a sub-committee may be paid prescribed allowances.

Section 8A, the National Crisis Management Committee

What the 2025 amendment did. It did not create the Committee. It provided that the National Crisis Management Committee constituted by the Government of India before the commencement of the Disaster Management (Amendment) Act 2025 shall be the National Crisis Management Committee for the purposes of this Act, and shall act as the nodal body to deal with major disasters which have serious or national ramifications.