The Need and Expediency of a Disaster Management Plan

In one line

A plan is worth having because in the first six hours of a disaster nobody has time to decide who is in charge, and the Act makes the plan compulsory for exactly that reason.

MU has printed this as a question in terms: "Discuss the need and expediency of Disaster Management Plan." It is a short-answer question and it rewards structure. This chapter supplies six reasons a plan is needed, three limits on what a plan can do, and the statutory provisions for each.

Why a plan is needed

One, because time is the scarce resource. In the first hours after an earthquake, a cyclone landfall or a chemical release, the people who must act are the people who are also affected. There is no time to work out who calls whom, where the ambulances come from, which building is safe or who may sign for a purchase. A plan converts a set of decisions that would have to be taken under pressure into decisions already taken. That is the whole of the argument, and everything else follows from it.

Two, because responsibility must be allocated in advance. Section 11(3)(d) requires the National Plan to state the roles and responsibilities of every Central Ministry. Section 23(4)(e) and (f) do the same for State departments, separately for prevention and mitigation and for response. Section 31(3)(d)(i) requires the District Plan to allocate responsibilities to district departments and local authorities. Without that, the first act of every disaster is an argument about jurisdiction.

Three, because resources must be located before they are needed. Section 30(2)(xxiv) requires the District Authority to identify buildings and places usable as relief centres or camps and to arrange water supply and sanitation in them. Section 30(2)(xxv) requires stockpiles of relief and rescue materials, or preparedness to make them available at short notice. Neither can be done in an emergency; both are cheap in advance.

Four, because a plan is what makes the risk visible. Section 23(4)(a), as substituted in 2025, requires the State Plan to state the exposure of different parts of the State to different hazards and the vulnerability of its people, assets, infrastructure, livelihood and economic activity. Section 31(3)(a) requires the District Plan to state the areas vulnerable to different forms of disasters. Writing that down is itself an act of prevention, because it identifies where a road should not be built and which school must be strengthened first.

Five, because a plan is what a training programme trains for. Sections 22(2)(p) and 30(2)(xxviii) require that communication systems be kept in order and that disaster management drills be carried out periodically. A drill needs a plan to drill against.

Six, because a plan makes failure attributable. If the plan says the public works department will clear the road and the road is not cleared, there is somebody to ask. Section 51(b) makes refusal to comply with a direction an offence, and section 56 punishes an officer who withdraws from his duties.