New Delhi, February 16: 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—-