VIJAYAWADA: National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) director general (DG) Sanjay Kumar took part in a Sainik Sammelan held at temporary NDRF campus in Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU) on Wednesday. He said efforts are being made to incorporate disaster management and response as a subject in the school syllabus.
Addressing the media, Sanjay Kumar hailed the services of NDRF personnel rescuing civilians and their properties during the times of natural calamities such as Kerala floods and Kodagu district of Karnataka recently and claimed that response time in reacting to the disasters has reduced. In addition to 12 NDRF battalions, the Centre sanctioned four more battalions in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and National Capital Region (NCR), he added.
“Kerala flood has taught a lesson. We are proposing strongly to the central government to incorporate disaster management in the school syllabus. The National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) campus in Kondapavuluru village will be readied by 2019. More courses will be introduced for NDRF personnel. Along with all the four battalions, an academy of NDRF will be coming up in Nagpur. Soon, we are going to recruit women in every battalion,” DG Sanjay Kumar said.
Sanjay later inspected the 10th Battalion and observed the facilities provided to the personnel by interacting with them. “We are trying to modernise the force by sending them to the international events. With the NDR relief fund of Rs 250 crore, we are providing relief material to the victims,” he said.