Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, has called for strengthening institutional systems to strengthen the Disaster Response mechanism amongst the South Asian countries. Inaugurating the first "South Asian Annual Disaster Management Exercise" (SAADMEx) – 2015 here today, Shri Rijiju called upon the eight member nations of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to accord high priority and develop better concept of Disaster Management.Rijiju said India has taken the lead role in the region by hosting the first SAADMEx, primarily because India is the biggest nation in this region and also because a lot has been done by us in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the last 16 months. Pointing out that South Asia is the most disaster prone region in the world and that we may face disasters more frequently in the days to come, he said that we have to create awareness in the minds of the people and empower them since they would be the ones who are going to face it. Shri Rijiju said we are taking DRR seriously, but we have much more to do and work out a proper laid down objective for ourselves on how to be better prepared to face disasters.
Rijiju said that any government programme has to incorporate DRR in their framework as a policy matter. He announced that Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by NIDM with Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for M. Phil. & PhD. on Disaster Management subject.Shri O P Singh, Director General, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), while welcoming the delegates, said that conducting this kind of Disaster Management Exercise among SAARC nations on annual basis is need of the time to develop better mechanism for tackling disasters and also minimize the impact. He also added that disaster response simulation exercise is the test of preparedness of response mechanism of the state.Dr. Ajay M. Gondane, Additional Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), also addressed the delegates during inaugural session. Addressing the inaugural session Mr. Arjun Bahadur Thapa, Secretary General, SAARC said that formulation of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and organizing disaster management exercise were decided during the Jakarta Disaster Management Summit. Addressing the gathering, Member Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Shri R.K. Jain said today is beginning of the process of DRR in form of SAADMEx as per the vision of our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
Representatives from Embassies/High Commission of SAARC Nations in Delhi and Senior level Officials from concerned Ministries attended the inaugural session. After the inaugural session, a Table Top Exercise was conducted by NDRF. The purpose of the Exercise was to provide participants with an opportunity to review and discuss disaster response plans & capabilities of an affected country by both national authorities and SAARC region countries.The SAADMEx will continue till November 26, 2015. On November 24, 2015 Joint Field Training Exercise on Collapsed Structure Search & Rescue (CSSR) will be conducted at NTH Complex, Kamla Nehru Nagar, Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh). Further, on November 25, 2015, Joint Field Training Exercise on Chemical Emergency will be conducted at Greater Noida (U.P.). The four-day long SAADMEx-2015 is being organized jointly by NDMA, NIDM, NDRF and MHA. Delegations and rescuers from each of the eight SAARC nations- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Srilanka are participating in SAADMEx-2015.