Definitions.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, - (a) "affected area" means the area declared as such under clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 32; (b) "appropriate authority" shall have the same meaning as in clause (iii) of section 2 of the Gujarat Town Planning and Urban Development Act, 1976; (c) "Authority" means the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority established under sub-section (1) of section 6; (d) "capacity-building" means building of capacity to cope up with any disaster and includes— (i) identification of existing resources relevant to any disaster, and resources to be acquired for the purpose of this Act; (ii) acquiring and creating resources, organisation and training of groups in local community; and (iii) co-ordination of such training; (e) "Chairperson" means the Chairperson of the Authority; (f) "Chief Executive Officer" means the Chief Executive Officer of the Authority; (g) "Commissioner" means the State Relief Commissioner appointed under section 11; (h) "disaster" means an actual or imminent event, whether natural or otherwise occurring in any part of the State which causes, or threatens to cause all or any of the following: (i) widespread loss or damage to property, both immovable and movable; or (ii) widespread loss of human life or injury or illness to human beings; or (iii) damage or degradation of environment; and any of the effects specified in sub-clauses (i) to (iii) is such as to be beyond the capacity of the affected community to cope up with using its own resources and which disrupts the normal functioning of the community; (i) "disaster management" means a continuous and integrated process of planning and implementation of measures with a view to: (i) mitigating or reducing the risk of disasters; (ii) mitigating the severity or consequence of disasters; (iii) capacity-building; (iv) emergency preparedness; (v) assessing the effects of disasters; (vi) providing emergency relief and rescue; and (vii) post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction; (j) "emergency preparedness" means the state of readiness which enables stakeholders to mobilize, organize and provide relief to deal with an impending or actual disaster or the effects of a disaster; (k) "Local Authority" means a municipal corporation, nagar panchayat, municipal council, district panchayat, taluka panchayat, gram panchayat, notified area committee or cantonment board constituted under relevant local authority law; (l) "member" means a member of the Authority; (m) "mitigation" means measures aimed at reducing the impact or effects of a disaster; (n) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act; (o) "prevention" means measures the object of which is to avoid the occurrence of a disaster; (p) "reconstruction" means repair and construction of a property undertaken after a disaster; (q) "regulations" means the regulations made under this Act; (r) "rehabilitation" means any activity the object of which is to restore normalcy in conditions caused by a disaster; (s) "relevant local authority law" means— (i) in relation to a City, the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act, 1949; (ii) in relation to municipal borough, transitional area, smaller urban area and notified area, the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963; (iii) in relation to a village, taluka and district, the Gujarat Panchayats Act, 1993; (iv) in relation to a cantonment, the Cantonments Act, 1924; (t) "relief" means measures taken during or immediately after a declaration of disaster to diminish, or alleviate any suffering, pain, injury or distress or hardship caused on account of the disaster; (u) "stakeholder" includes— (i) any State Government; (ii) any statutory functionary; (iii) voluntary agencies including foreign voluntary agencies and (iv) any other person identified by the Authority; which participate in any manner in activities related to disaster management.