Plea for medical preparedness at Kalpakkam

CHENNAI: A writ plea has been made in the HC for a direction to the State and Centre to implement Chapter 6 of the National Disaster Management Guidelines on management of nuclear and radiological emergencies relating to medical preparedness in and around the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS)in Kalpakkam in Kanchipuram district.In his public interest writ petition, advocate M Vetri Selvan , also an environmentalist, submitted that Chapter 6 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005,required the authorities concerned to take all measures for the prevention of disaster or the mitigation or preparedness and capacity building for dealing with threatening disaster situation or disaster.All these had to be implemented by December at the MAPS. However, the authorities had not taken any step to implement the guidelines regarding medical preparedness, which was an essential component of nuclear disaster/radiological emergency/disaster preparedness, petitioner contended.