A High-Level Committee, under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah, has approved Rs. 1,115.67 crore for disaster mitigation and capacity-building projects across various states, including Nagaland. The committee, which comprises the Finance Minister, Agriculture Minister, and Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, considered proposals to mitigate landslide risk in 15 states for funding from the National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) and a proposal for the training and capacity building of Civil Defense volunteers in all states and UTs under Preparedness and Capacity Building from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
The High-Level Committee has approved the National Landslide Risk Mitigation project for 15 states (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal) at a total cost of Rs. 1,000 crore. The committee approved Rs. 139 crore for Uttarakhand, Rs. 139 crore for Himachal Pradesh, Rs. 378 crore for the eight Northeastern states, Rs. 100 crore for Maharashtra, Rs. 72 crore for Karnataka, Rs. 72 crore for Kerala, Rs. 50 crore for Tamil Nadu, and Rs. 50 crore for West Bengal.
The HLC also approved a project for the training and capacity building of civil defense personnel in all states and UTs at a total outlay of Rs. 115.67 crore.
The Union government has already released more than Rs. 21,476 crore to the states this year. This includes Rs. 14,878.40 crore from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) to 26 states, Rs. 4,637.66 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to 15 states, Rs. 1,385.45 crore from the State Disaster Mitigation Fund (SDMF) to 11 states, and Rs. 574.93 crore from the National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) to six states.