-Live Mint Fast clearance of river projects and the lack of disaster preparedness have wreaked havoc in Uttarakhand Relief operations in disaster-ravaged Uttarakhand have ended and the time seems ripe to take account of the institutional frailties that have contributed to the ongoing human disaster in the state. Chief minister Vijay Bahuguna has been blamed for inaction when the disaster first struck and has also admitted that the state did not...

-PTI Till September 2011, only eight States have prepared EAP for 192 large dams Even as the Uttarakhand floods bring to the fore the debate over strength of dams, there are over 4,500 such structures in the country which are operating without an "emergency action plan" (EAP) rendering huge area and property vulnerable to cascading effects of dam failure. The Central Water Commission (CWC), which works under the Water Resources Ministry, had issued...

-The Business Standard According to Uttarakhand govt, there are over 3,000 people missing in the natural calamity Members of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday, slammed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), as a "mere spectator" during a natural or man-made calamity in the country. The members raised doubts on NDMA's functioning and asked why it was unable to give specific recommendations to state governments. PAC members, who have started considering the...

-Governance Now A CAG report dated March 15, 2013 had found Uttarakhand sitting on a time bomb, with nearly zero disaster preparedness back in Sept 2012 when the nationwide performance audit was done. Will other states, marked equally poorly in the audit, sit up and smell the coffee? The massive disaster in Uttarakhand has brought to the fore not only the old debate of ecology versus development but also thrown up...

-Timescrest.com Three successive CAG reports warned the Uttarakhand govt about the consequences of multiple hydropower projects, and their unpreparedness in the face of disaster. The advice was ignored. With aim of turning Uttarakhand into Urja Pradesh, the state has committed to building 680 dams, currently in various stages of commissioning, construction and planning. The powers that be have expedited the clearances for these projects. However, when it came to the issue of credible...