Why in news?
As the Army moves in to take over the COVID-19 quarantine facility at Narela in Delhi, the procedure for calling the armed forces to help the civil administration is in the spotlight.
What is the procedure?
- The regulations permit civil authorities to requisition the Army for controlling law and order, maintaining essential services, assisting during natural calamities such as earthquakes, and any other type of help that may be needed by the civil authorities.
- Civil administration requests the Local Military Authority for assistance, for the maintenance of law and order, maintenance of essential services, disaster relief and other types of assistance.
- Armed forces can be asked to provide troops and equipment for a flag march, rescue and relief, evacuation, and immediate aid.
What are the tasks expected to be performed?
Besides the specialised medical resources, which are centrally controlled, the local units are prepared for maintenance of law and order, crowd control, curfew in sensitive areas, evacuation of civilians from affected areas, provision of essential supply of electricity and water, restoration of essential services, emergency feeding and shelter, prevention of panic, prevention of theft and loot, guarding quarantine locations and detention centres, surveillance through drones aerial platforms, and other miscellaneous tasks.
What about the primary role of the Armed Forces?
- Providing aid to civil authorities, as and when called upon to do so, is a secondary task for the armed forces.
- It cannot replace the primary role of ensuring external security and operational preparedness.
- The Army recently killed five militants on the Line of Control (LoC), foiling an infiltration attempt, while losing five Special Forces soldiers in the engagement.
- The Navy also continues to be operational on its various mission-based deployments, while taking all the precautions to prevent infection from foreign ports.
Is there a ceiling on such deployment?
- No, there is no such ceiling either of duration of deployment or on the number of armed forces personnel that can be deployed to aid civil authority.
- The National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), headed by the cabinet secretary, is the final authority.
Are there any templates or instances from the past that are applicable here?
- The current situation is different from earlier cases such as tsunami or super-cyclone, which were natural disasters.
- The major difference is that specialists are the key in the current situation, and their tasks cannot be performed by general duty soldiers.
What is the role of the National Disaster Management Authority?
- NDMA is involved in secondary follow-ups by the Home Ministry, and is not very actively involved in the current case.
- The roles of the Ministries of Health, Home, Civil Aviation and Defence are predominant in this case.
- The armed forces are aligned with them at the apex level viz NCMC.
- The directions are followed by execution-level coordination which is done by respective secretaries in the government.
