Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2015-12-02

Reconstitution and Empowerment of the Legal and Institutional Framework for Disaster Management

- Activities such as the minimization of disasters, early preparation, response to emergency situations and the collection of information related to disasters are being carried out through the Disaster Management Center which has been established under the Ministry of Disaster Management, while the National Disaster Relief Services Center carries out the work related to post-disaster relief, rehabilitating disaster affected people as well as reconstruction of the houses of disaster victims. Although these two institutions operate separately, both of them get directly involved in activities related to disaster management. As such, in order to establish an efficient mechanism required for disaster management efforts, the proposal made by Hon. Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, the Minister of Disaster Management, to merge the above mentioned two institutions and set up a more strengthened single institution, was approved by the Cabinet.