Home minister Amit Shah orders formation of special team on Himachal natural disasters

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has directed the formation of a multi-sectoral central team to assess the situation in Himachal Pradesh in view of the rising frequency and intensity of natural disasters in the hill state.

At a recent meeting, chaired by Shah, it was noted that Himachal Pradesh has witnessed an increase in the frequency and intensity of cloudbursts, flash floods, landslides and torrential rainfall, causing widespread loss of life, damage to infrastructure and livelihoods and environmental degradation in the state, an official release said.

Shah immediately ordered the constitution of a multi-sectoral central team comprising experts from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) Roorkee, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Pune, and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore to assess the situation, the release said.

Further, in the wake of floods, flash floods and landslides during the South West monsoon this year in different parts of Himachal Pradesh, the central government has already deputed an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) in advance, without waiting for their Memorandum, for on-the-spot first-hand assessment of damage.