Two new battalions of the National Disater Response Force (NDRF) will be set up in Arunachal Pradesh and in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union minister Kiren Rijiju said here on Monday.The new NDRF battalions will have 1,200 personnel each, the union minister of state for home affairs said after inaugurating a training programme for NDRF on management of animals during disasters.Rijiju said the union cabinet recently approved the home ministry's proposal to enhance disaster response facilities in the country.The battalion in Arunachal Pradesh will cater to disasters in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur, while the battalion already stationed in Guwahati will respond to disasters in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, he said.
The NDRF battalion in Arunachal Pradesh "will enhance our capacity to tackle the recurring problem of flood and landslide", he said."The entire northeast is prone to floods and landslides and the region is situated on a seismically active zone. We hope the new battalion will help in capacity building of the local administration as well as the communities to tackle such disasters and reduce impacts," Rijiju said.
He said the union government has also decided to enhance the compensation given to disaster-affected people under the home ministry's National Disaster Response Fund.A total of 34 personnel from Guwahati, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar are taking part in the week-long training."India is a largely agrarian country, and cattle and other livestock are directly linked to our rural economy. By protecting the animals, we will help our rural economy as well," said NDRF director general O.P. Singh.