A High-Level Committee chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah today approved over Five Hundred 7 crore rupees for the National Project for Strengthening Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction Initiatives in Panchayati Raj Institutions for 20 states.

The Home Ministry said that the National Disaster Mitigation Fund was launched in 2021 to arm society to withstand any disaster, which was today extended to the Panchayat level.

It said that this initiative aims at integrating Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) practices into the governance structure through a bottom-up approach to disaster management.

It added that this programme will cover 81 disaster-prone districts of 20 States. The Ministry highlighted that it will additionally develop 20 Gram Panchayats focused on major hazards as replicable models for local DRR.

The Ministry said, this additional assistance is over and above the funds released by the Centre to the States in the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), already placed at the disposal of the States.

During the current financial year, the Central Government has released 16 thousand 118 crore to 28 States under SDRF and over 2854 crore rupees to 18 States under the National Disaster Response Fund.