OTED scientist and earthquake expert. Dr. Janardhan up a disaster management ministry in the country to tackle natural disasters.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, Dr. Negi who is also the director of the National Geophysics Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, said in spite of having separate departments of meteorology, geology and the NGRI, there is a need for having an exclusive disaster management ministry in the country.

The ministry should have an exclusive mandate of dealing with disaster, he said adding, in the present system responsibilities are not clearly defined.

"It seems the country has not learnt any lessons from the Latur earthquake which claimed over 10,000 lives and destroyed property worth Rs.1500 crores," he said. It may be recalled that soon after Latur quake Dr. Negi predicted more earthquakes in the country and called for preparedness.

Dr. Negi differed with the antidam activists that big dams would lead to more earthquakes in the country by saying that till date there is no such example.

He also advocated for setting up a seismic research institute in the country. Earlier, giving a lecture on "Earthquakes in the Indian peninsula," organized by the Center for Environment Protection Research and Development (CEPRD), Dr. Negi said, union defence minister George Fernandes was right when he claimed loss of over one lakh lives, as the quakes was of that enormity.

Brushing aside fears of earthquakes in Indore, Dr. Negi said chances of an earthquake here was very remote as Indore lies under zonell, which meant that the possibility of quake in the region was as good as nil.