A high-level committee, under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has approved a number of disaster mitigation and capacity building projects for various states, an official statement said on Thursday.

A meeting of the committee which included the Finance Minister, Agriculture Minister and Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog as members was held in New Delhi on Thursday.

The committee considered a total of nine proposals for funding from the National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to combat Urban Flooding in six cities, to mitigate Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) in four hill states and also to strengthen Fire Services across three states.

The committee has also considered a proposal to implement the Yuva Aapda Mitra Scheme across all the states of the country.

The MHA under guidance of the HM has taken several initiatives to ensure effective management of disasters in the country, to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of disaster resilient India.

A number of steps have been taken to prevent any extensive loss to life and property during disasters by strengthening the disaster risk reduction system, the statement said further.

Six project proposals in the states of Telangana, Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal and Maharashtra at a total cost of Rs 2514.36 crore for urban flood management across six metro cities, namely, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune, were approved in the meeting on Thursday.

Earlier, the high level committee on November 27 last year, approved the project proposal for integrated solutions for flood management for Chennai, Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs 561.29 crore.

It also approved three project proposals under the scheme for “Expansion and Modernization of Fire Services in the states” for Assam, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu of a total outlay of Rs 810.64 crore.

The Union Government has allocated a total amount of Rs 5000 crore under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for this scheme, and had already approved the proposals of 11 states at a total outlay of Rs 1691.43 crore, the statement added.

A project proposal for GLOF risk mitigation for the states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh at a total outlay of Rs 150 crore, has also been approved by the government.

A proposal of Yuva Aapda Mitra Scheme (YAMS) at an outlay of Rs 470.50 crore from NDRF has also been approved, which will be implemented in 315 most disaster-prone districts of the country for training of 1300 trained Aapda Mitra Volunteers as master trainers.

A total of 2.37 lakh volunteers exclusively from NCC, NSS, NYKS and BS&G (Bharat Scouts &Guides) in disaster preparedness and response will also be trained as part of the initiative, which is in line with PM’s vision of preparing the community as first responders during any disaster.

Earlier, the Government implemented“ Aapda Mitra”, scheme under which around 1 lakh community volunteers have been trained for disaster response across 350 most disaster-prone districts of the country.

During the current financial year, the centre has released Rs 6348 crores to 14 states under State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and Rs 672 crore to six states under the State Disaster Mitigation Fund (SDMF).

In addition, an amount of Rs 4265 crore has been released to 10 states under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).