NDRF battalion to be rewarded for commendable work in disaster management

The NDRF's 8th battalion located at Ghaziabad has been selected for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar for its commendable work in disaster management, the Home Ministry said Thursday.

The recipient will receive a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 51 lakhs for the award, which was instituted in honour of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

The 8th battalion of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was raised in 2006 and is a highly specialised rescue and response force with large area of responsibility covering the national capital region (NCR), Uttarakhand, western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, an official statement said.

The battalion has participated in 314 major operations and rescued over 50,000 people. In the devastating Kerala floods last year, the battalion had rescued 5,338 victims and evacuated 24,000 people to safety.

Other major disasters in which this NDRF battalion participated are Leh cloud burst (2011), Kedarnath floods (2013), cyclone Hudhud (2014), Chennai floods (2015) and Tripura floods (2018).

The battalion had worked efficiently to neutralise the threat during radiation incident at Mayapuri in Delhi during 2010, the statement said.