The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Cabinet Secretariat will have to be informed every three hours on developing situation of any disaster categorised as 'Red' and every 12 hours in case of disaster categorised as 'Orange'.
These were part of the latest guidelines issued by the Home Ministry, on disaster warning and response of the authorities, and circulated to all states.
According to the guidelines, the Indian Meteorological Department has been designated as nodal agency for early warning for cyclone, the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre and the Indian National Centre for Oceanic Information Services for Tsunami and Central Water Commission for floods.
The Geological Survey of India has been marked as nodal agency for issuing early warning for landslides, Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment for avalanches and Indian Meteorological Department for heat and cold waves.
"Alerts falling in Red stage will be communicated to Prime Minister's Office/ Cabinet Secretariat with 3 hourly updates or at more frequent intervals as warranted by the situation," the guidelines said.
Alerts falling in Orange stage will be communicated to PMO/ Cabinet Secretariat with 12 hourly updates or when it is upgraded to the Red Stage, whichever is earlier and alerts falling in Yellow stage will be communicated to PMO/ Cabinet Secretariat through SpeedPost. While very severe type of disaster is categorised as Red, moderate type is categorised as Orange and low type is designated as Yellow.