BeyondHeadlines News Desk
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected today to hold a meeting to discuss India’s nuclear disaster preparedness that could lead to steps like the installation of radiation measuring instruments in 35 cities, in light of the recent crisis in Japan.
Japan had a category 7, the highest in the 1 to 7 scale, nuclear crisis in its hands and meltdowns in reactors after a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami crippled an atomic power station in Fukushima on Mar 11, raising global concerns on nuclear safety.
The meeting on Wednesday will also discuss speeding up measures like the creation of disaster response forces in places, in addition to existing four, and procurement of special radiation-detection vehicles.
The Prime Minister will take stock of the functioning of National Defence Response Force (NDRF), and consider the proposal of creating six more battalions besides the existing four currently stationed at Noida (outside Delhi), Kolkata, Arakkonam (Tamil Nadu) and Pune.
He will nuclear safety issues being supervised by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and Department of Atomic Energy; and the crisis management guidelines issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), media reports said.
The meeting will decide on the installation of radiation-detecting ‘dosi-meters’ in 1,000 police stations in 35 cities having more than one million population, sources said.
