New Delhi, Jan 23 (IANS): IPS officer Kumar Munnan Singh, who earned accolades for his rescue work during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, and the Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre (DMMC) in Uttarakhand have been selected for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar-2020, the Home Ministry said on Thursday.
Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Singh and DMMC have been selected in the individual and institution category, respectively, for commendable work in the disaster management field.
The winners were selected from a list of 330 nominations solicited from August 1, 2019, onwards. The last date for nominations was October 15, 2019.
A certificate and Rs 51 lakh in cash is given to the winning institution, which has to be used for disaster management-related activities only.
In case of individual winners, a certificate and Rs 5 lakh is given.
The 8th Battalion of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh was selected for the award in 2019.
In order to recognise excellent work done by individuals and institutions in India in disaster management, the Centre instituted the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar, which is announced every year on January 23, the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
IPS officer Singh was appointed founder-member of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in 2005 following his commendable work during the 2004 tsunami.
In the NDMA, he established a specialist response force, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), which today has 12 battalions with 14,000 personnel.
Under Singh's leadership, the NDRF made commendable responses in its nascent phase itself, during the devastating Kosi foods in 2008.
The officer also propounded and implemented the concept of Community Capacity Building by the NDRF as a force multiplier. As a result, the NDRF has trained around 60 lakh people as first responders among their community.
Considering wide gaps in the Indian disaster management framework, Singh also formulated the concept and curriculum for training of response forces and veterinarians for the management of livestock during disasters.
The DMMC, which discharges the functions of State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA)under the government of Uttarakhand since its establishment in 2006, has coordinated various post-disaster functions relating to coordination, requisition, information exchange and media briefing, including those after the 2010, 2012 and 2013 major disaster incidents.
The DMMC has been organising mock exercises at the state, district and tehsil levels with the support of NDMA and trained state government officials in Incident Response System and organized incidence response training up to the tehsil level.