The Hindu : National : Improve credibility, weathermen told

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005

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National

Improve credibility, weathermen told

By P. Sunderarajan

NEW DELHI, FEB. 21. Weathermen at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) could not have bargained for a worse situation, as the Union Science and Technology Minister, Kapil Sibal, himself questioned the credibility of their forecasts at an open forum here today.

Inaugurating a five-day meeting of the joint panel of World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and United Nations' Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) on tropical cyclones, Mr. Sibal said the IMD needed to take steps to ensure the credibility of its forecasts. This, he said, was particularly essential to ensure that the common man heeded advance warnings issued when cyclonic storms were in a nascent stage. "Like politicians, the Meteorological Department has very little credibility. It is essential that something was done about it so that the common man will take their forecasts seriously," Mr. Sibal said.

He also wanted an honest assessment of the way the authorities and the people hadreacted after every cyclonic storm to find out how the response mechanism could be improved. "We need to constantly learn. We cannot allow a situation where in cyclone after cyclone large sections of people continue to be affected," Mr. Sibal said.

In particular, he called for measures to tone up the information dissemination system. "The country has enough technology to predict cyclones. But, we are not able to communicate the warnings to the people properly. We need to put out alerts in simple and clear terms," he added.

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