Government has instituted an annual award titled Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar. The award will be announced every year on 23rd January on the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
In the aftermath of any disaster, many organisations and individuals work silently but effectively to alleviate suffering of the affected population. Their immense contribution and selfless service to humanity often goes unacknowledged. Keeping this in view, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, had advised to institute a National Award so as to recognise the efforts of such organisations and individuals.
All Indian citizens and organizations, who have excelled in areas of Disaster Management; like prevention, mitigation, preparedness, rescue, response, relief, rehabilitation, research/ innovations or early warning are eligible for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar. The award scheme for the year 2019 was given wide publicity and nominations of the award were solicited from 19th Dec 2018 on wards. Last date for receipt of nominations was 07th Jan 2019. The response to the award scheme was overwhelming with over 300 nominations from Institutions and Individuals.
8th Battalion of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) located at Ghaziabad has been selected for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar 2019, for its commendable work in Disaster Management. The Award recipient will receive a certificate and a cash prize of Rs. 51 lakh:
- The 8th Battalion of NDRF was raised in 2006 and is a highly specialised Rescue and Response Force with large area of responsibility covering National Capital Region (NCR), Uttarakhand, Western UP & Haryana.
- It has participated in 314 major Operations and rescued over 50,000 people. In the recent Kerala Floods, the battalion rescued 5338 victims & evacuated 24,000 persons 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, Delhi during the year 2010.
- They have also done commendable Disaster Management related work internationally. In the aftermath of Nepal Earthquake in 2015, six teams of the battalion were amongst the first responders to land at Kathmandu. Their teams were also sent to Japan during Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (2011) and recent Tsunami in Indonesia (2108).
- In addition to the response and relief work, the 8th Battalion NDRF has trained large number of first responders from SDRF, NCC, Civil Defense, Homeguard, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan and Nepal Police. The Community based Capacity Building Programmes run by the battalion has benefited over nine lakh people.
