Terming the Centre's aid to Maharashtra for flood relief work as 'insufficient', Bharatiya Janata Party president L K Advani on Sunday upheld the demand made by the  state unit to the government that it hold a special session of the state legislature to discuss relief measures.

Talking to reporters after touring the flood-affected areas of Raigad district, Advani also stressed on the need to evolve an early warning machinery to prepare people for such natural calamities. He said the state could take the help of the metereology department.
    
The state should raise its own disaster management authority, similar to the one set up by the NDA government some years ago, he added.
    
He said the uncontrolled and unplanned growth of Mumbai was responsible for the mammoth loss of life and property in the city in the recent rains.

Terrible Tuesday: Mumbai copes with a calamity

"The state government could not lead Mumbai the Shanghai way, but it certainly did lead the city the Venice way," he observed.
    
Advani expressed hope that similar to the way cities like Surat and Morvi in Gujarat overcame natural calamities and flourished as new cities, the Konkan region would also regain its old glory or even become better.

"However, for this, the state, social organisations and the society at large have a major role to play," he added.
Terrible Tuesday: Mumbai copes with a calamity
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