Notwithstanding the "enviable" record in handling safety concerns over nuclear plants, India has a long way to go in addressing the problem of nuclear disasters, a top official dealing with the issue said on Thursday.
"Though India is well prepared to cope up with nuclear disasters there are shortcomings in addressing the safety issues at nuclear installations," N Shahdidhar Reddy said during a talk on Nuclear Disaster Management in India: Issues and Prospects in Delhi on Thursday.
There is need to focus on "consequence of inaction" in the aftermath of disaster, said Reddy, the vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), whose chairman is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"We often talk about success stories of disaster management team but overlook the shortcomings in the operation," he said in his address at the Observer Research Foundation.
He lamented that despite coming into existence before NDMA did in 2005, the National Institute of Disaster Management could train only 30,000 people.
"There is a need to decentralise the training in disaster management," Reddy said.
Reddy also pointed out that India is spending crores of rupees on installing nuclear facilities but nothing is being to done to provide facilities to people living in the vicinity of the plants.
"When a land site is identified for a nuclear installation, people are told that they will get benefit from the project but nothing happens," Reddy said.
