New Delhi, May 21 (IANS): Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Friday advised all states and Union Territories to make extra efforts to secure all health facilities, and oxygen generation plants from heavy rains or floods during the South-West Monsoon or any other impending disaster.

His direction came at an annual conference of state/Union Territory Relief Commissioners and Secretaries, Disaster Management, organised by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to review the status of preparedness for dealing with natural disasters that may arise during the South-West Monsoon 2021.

In his inaugural address, the Union Home Secretary stressed on the need for building up capacities and response reflexes to ensure 24x7 preparedness throughout the year.

He also asked all officials of the Central and the state governments concerned to be better prepared, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, to minimise losses due to natural disasters, such as floods, cyclones, earthquakes etc.

Bhalla also released the Version 4.0 of the National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM), developed by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), which is very helpful in integration of real-time alerts and warning from forecasting agencies and dissemination of this to disaster management authorities upto district level for disaster risk reduction in the country.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) made a presentation on forecasting, warning and dissemination mechanism, response and preparedness measures and their future plans for enhancing capability in the field of disaster management. Issues connected with disaster preparedness, early warning systems, flood and river or reservoir management, disaster management on-site and off-site plans of the states and Union Territories were discussed.