New Delhi: Warning that there is a high
chance of terror outfits launching chemical or biological
attacks, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Thursday
said a "lot still needs to be done" to deal with any such
eventualities.
"The recent attack few days ago involving a car, shows
that there is a high possibility of such attacks. The chemical
and biological agents needed for this are easily available,"
NDMA Vice-Chairman M Shashidhar Reddy said, referring to the
recent attack on an Israeli embassy vehicle.
On steps taken to deal with such situation, he said that
a lot still needs to be done to deal with various forms of
chemical and biological threats posed by terrorist groups.
"We have done some work on nuclear and radiological
emergencies, but we need to think a little more to deal with
the eventuality of a chemical or biological attack by
terrorists," he said, adding that the technology developed by
DRDO for the purpose needs to be commercialised.
On augmenting capability of local agencies to deal with
CBRN emergencies, Reddy said, "We have introduced Incident
Response System (IRS) to institutionalise response action. It
envisages action related to planning, operations and logistics
which needs to be coordinated in such eventuality."
The NDMA Vice-Chairman also inaugurated a two-day
conference on Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear
(CBRN) Disaster Management and Security, jointly organised by
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), NDMA and
Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT), the UK.
Asked when the IRS would be operationalised, he said
though no deadline can be fixed, but attempts are being made
to inform people and educate concerned agencies for the
purpose.
Meanwhile, addressing the conference Minister of State
at UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Jeremy Browne said UK
was keen to share its expertise in this field with India and
there was much to be gained through sharing of experiences.
The conference was attended by several top members and
officials of DRDO, NDMA and other government Ministries and
departments.
PTI
