Doctors demand arrest of those involved in recent attacks on two physicians in the district
WHO adds top former Indian bureaucrat to its Advisory Group
The World Health Organisation has appointed a top former Indian bureaucrat, Vinod Kumar Duggal, to its ‘Advisory Group’ to strengthen response to outbreaks and emergencies with health and humanitarian consequences.
Published : 25 Sept 2015, 10:47 AM
Updated : 25 Sept 2015, 11:04 AM
He is the only representative from the WHO South-East Asia Region in the Advisory Group to WHO Director General Dr Margaret Chan and will serving on an “honorary basis”, the UN agency has said.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, DPR Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste are the regional members.
Chaired by Dr David Nabarro, the UN Secretary-General'sSpecial Envoy on Ebola, the Advisory Group comprises high-level experts in the categories of large-scale emergency response, disaster preparedness, disease outbreak control, and crisis coordination.
The members are senior officials of UN agencies, government and international humanitarian non-governmental organisations.
An Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1968 batch, Duggal has held top positions like that of the Home Secretary in India. He was also the ex-governor of Manipur and Mizoram states.
WHO says he has “extensive experience in leading and coordinating response to disasters and outbreaks such as reconstruction and rehabilitation post 2004 tsunami; the earthquake in Jammu and Kashmir in 2005, flash floods in Uttarakhand in 2013 and cyclone Phailin in Orissa in 2013”.
He drafted the legislation for the setting up of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the apex body for disaster management in India, formed during his tenure as the Home Secretary.
“I am happy to share, at the global level, my knowledge gained through long years of experience in the field of emergencies and disaster management in India with the aim to strengthen capacities to respond to outbreaks and crisis,” Duggal was quoted as saying in a WHO statement.
WHO says his experience in handling of response to disease outbreaks dates back to the 1996-97 dengue epidemic in Indian capital New Delhi when he was the commissioner of the city’s municipal corporation.
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