National Disaster Response Force with eight battallions soon

Hyderabad, Apr 23 (UNI) National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) member and MLA M Shashidhar Reddy today said the country would soon have eight battallions under National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to handle disaster situations.

In Andhra Pradesh a resource centre for disaster management would be set up. The state governments also directed to have their own NDRFs, he said talking to newspersons.

Mr Reddy said personnel drawn from BSF, CISF and CRPF would be carry out duties at eight different locations in the country.

He said it was decided that the state governments would also be asked to have their own local NDRFs. Efforts are on to set up a resource centre for disaster management in Andhra Pradesh, he a dded.

Expressing concern over the 13 cyclone prone coastal and island states and Union Territories response to National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP), 2002, Mr Reddy said it was expected to be completed by February 2006, but has not been finalised.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has signed letter of agreement for Project Preparation Facility on March 16, 2005 for 800,000 dollars and issued guidelines for preparing the project to concerned coastal states.

But only four states have sent their proposals to government. Even Andhra Pradesh did not respond, he said.

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