High-Level Committee approves Rs 725.62 crore for fire service expansion in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal

New Delhi: A High-Level Committee under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah has approved three projects of Rs 725.62 crore under "expansion and modernisation" of fire services in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Monday.
The Committee has approved Rs 147.76 crore for Chhattisgarh, Rs 201.10 crore for Odisha and Rs 376.76 crore for West Bengal. The Committee is comprised of Finance Minister, Agriculture Minister and Vice Chairman NITI Aayog as members.
The move is part of a number of steps taken so far by the MHA to prevent any extensive loss to life and property during disasters by strengthening the disaster risk reduction system in India.
The Central government has allocated a total of Rs 5,000 crore under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for "expansion and modernisation of fire services in the states," said the MHA in a statement, adding that the proposals of 15 states at a total outlay of Rs 2,542.12 crore had already been approved.
As per the statement, more than Rs 21,026 crore has already been released to the states during 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 124.93 crore from the National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) to three states.