3 bureaucrats to be sent to Kathmandu early next week under CM’s orders

The Delhi Government will, beginning next week, embark on a concerted effort to extend its disaster management capabilities and initiate a recovery programme across quake-torn Nepal, it has been reliably learnt.

Three bureaucrats, who are in-charge of disaster management at their respective districts and were part of the Mega Delhi Mock Drill held in early 2012, will be despatched to Kathmandu early next week under orders from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, a highly-placed source told The Hindu .

The effort is aimed at extending disaster management capabilities to the Nepalese Capital where volunteers from across the world are conducting one the largest relief efforts in human history.

More officials from the Delhi Government will supplement disaster management efforts being extended to Nepal by the Central Government and Governments from each Indian State, later.

“Ranjeet Singh, ADM (East), Kuldeep Singh, ADM (Shahdara) and Dr. Apurva Sharma will constitute the first instalment of bureaucrats to be despatched to Kathmandu for the said recovery programme,” said a senior Government official.

“They have been chosen on the basis of their performance during the Delhi Mock Drill of 2012; they were also part of relief efforts at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands post the Tsunami in 2004. A special team will monitor their functioning from here,” the official added. A source said the Delhi Government was poised to play a significant role in recovery efforts in Nepal over the course of the coming four to five years as per the insistence of Chief Minister Kejriwal.

Mr. Kejriwal, the source said, had expressed his willingness to ensure efficient disaster management capabilities were extended to Kathmandu in addition to aid and relief packages.

“Multiple agencies are operating in Nepal at the moment and the need of the hour is to ensure that efficient managers are deputed to chalk out extensive recovery procedures there; Delhi has some of the most efficient hands available for the role,” the official said.

A Mega Mock Drill or the Delhi Mock Drill which saw participation of 1.5 crore Delhi residents -- had been carried out simultaneously at as many as a thousand locations on the morning of February 15, 2012 and a series of measures have been chosen to be relatively well-prepared for potentially calamitous seismic activity.