Civil defence force

·         On April 2, 2008 Civil Defence Advisory Committee of the ministry of home affairs unanimously agreed to entrust the five lakh force of civil defence (CD) with the additional responsibility of disaster management.

·         This suggestion was first made by the committee headed by National Disaster Management Committee (NDMA) member K.M. Singh to strengthen and widen the scope of civil defence.

·         The committee is also in an agreement on the proposal to carry out necessary amendments in the Civil Defence Act of 1968 to integrate civil defence in the disaster management framework.

·         The suggested amendment would entail insertion of the definition of ‘disaster’ spelt out in the Disaster Management Act, 2005, in the provisions of the Civil Defence Act.

·         The first meeting of the reconstituted Civil Defence Advisory Committee approved the far-sighted suggestions of the K.M. Singh committee to strengthen civil defence and extend its coverage six fold to 604 districts in three phases across the country by changing the town specific concept of civil defence, as disasters are not confined to towns alone.

·         At present, CD infrastructure is activated in 124 of the 225 towns catergorised as CD towns. The Civil Defence Act is meant to provide protection to individuals and property against any hostile attack and in a limited number of categorised towns.