ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the grim lapses in administrative and technological matters in disaster preparedness. An important lesson from the Uttarakhand tragedy and CAG report is the need for criteria to evaluate standards of performance and instill deeper accountability. This is possible only if certain standards are set to identify and evaluate performance through the glaring loopholes in emergency governance. Standard-setting helps as a legal parameter of performance and can become an indispensable tool to bring greater clarity and serious implementation of disaster laws. Disaster laws should adopt and enact such legal parameters which will, in turn, make enforcement compelling at three levels of disaster management.
