<span style="color: #222222;">Panchayati Raj Minister Giriraj Singh today called for people's participation in preparedness for disaster management and mitigation activities at grassroots level. He said this while releasing the Disaster Management Plan of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj through video conferencing.<br />'' <br />'' The Union Minister underlined that the involvement of the community is the key factor in any disaster preparedness strategy and active participation of the community is vital to carry out and sustain the activities relating to disaster management in rural areas.<br />'' <br />'' He stressed on the need to formulate Panchayat-level and village-level Disaster Management Plans to mitigate the challenges in the event of disaster. He says disaster management should be kept in mind while making a master plan for the holistic development of Panchayats in the country.<br />'' <br />'' The Minister said that his Ministry has developed the Disaster Management Plan with an aim to develop disaster resilience at the grassroots level among the Panchayats.<br />'' <br />'' The Plan will also establish a framework to align the disaster management measures in rural areas to that of the National Disaster Management Authority.<br />'' <br />''<br />''He also added that the convergent and collective actions to envision, plan and implement community-based disaster management plans, would be a game-changer for India in managing disasters comprehensively.</span><br />