Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced on Saturday that the Centre has approved a 40 per cent hardship and risk allowance for NDRF rescuers, keeping in mind the tough operations undertaken by them.
He said this while welcoming a 35-member expedition team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) that recently scaled the 21,625-foot-high Mt Manirang in Himachal Pradesh.
"The government has approved a 40 per cent risk and hardship allowance for NDRF personnel only yesterday. This has been a long pending demand... All the 16,000 personnel of the force will benefit from this," Shah said after welcoming the expedition named 'Vijay'.
Officials stated that this allowance would be provided in addition to regular salaries. Special forces such as the National Security Guard (NSG) and the Special Protection Group (SPG) receive a 25 percent hardship allowance due to the unique nature of their responsibilities.
This is the second mountaineering expedition undertaken by the federal contingency force. The team was flagged off on June 1 from here. Mt Manirang is located along the border of Kinnaur and Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh.
Shah said the government has also decided to make sports a "culture" for the various Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and special organisations like the NDRF. It has been decided that at least one team from these forces will mandatorily participate in international and national tournaments, he added.
"A committee under the chairmanship of the director of the Intelligence Bureau has been constituted and a roadmap has been prepared. We will soon present a new model," the minister said.
Shah also underlined that forces like the NDRF should ensure that the policy of "zero casualty" during disasters is followed and no lives are lost during calamities.
"We have come a long way... the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been working on the concept of zero casualties during disasters for the last 10 years," he said.
Shah said his government has allocated higher funds for capacity building and training of the NDRF and state disaster response forces by allocating Rs 2 lakh crore during 2014-24 as compared to Rs 66,000 crore during 2004-14.
He complimented the NDRF team for the successful expedition, saying such exercises will boost the force's capabilities and morale and it will be able to do better during disasters and accident operations.
Shah cautioned the rescuers that they should not rest on their laurels but keep improving.
The NDRF was raised in 2006 as a federal contingency and disaster response force and at present, has a strength of more than 18,000 men and women rescuers deployed across the country as part of 16 battalions and 28 RRCs.
It undertakes operations to mitigate and combat man-made and natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and train accidents among others.
(With PTI inputs)
