Maharashtra to get 2 NDRF-like disaster management units

On a day when 15 people were killed and scores feared trapped after a landslide struck Malin village near Pune, the state cabinet cleared a proposal to establish two companies of a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)-like rescue force for Maharashtra.

Each company will have three teams comprising 45 officers and staff and will be pressed into action in times of calamities.

Maharashtra has been hit repeatedly by floods, earthquakes and cyclones and around 15 to 20 districts see floods every year. Parts of Vidarbha and Marathwada and Koyna, Raigad, Satara and Thane fall in the flood-prone and drought hit zones.

Last year, during floods in Vidarbha, the NDRF had to be summoned for evacuation. Presently, the force is based at Talegaon Dabhade in Pune's Maval taluka, which affects its response time during emergencies.

Meanwhile, to tide over disgruntlement, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan reshuffled the guardian ministers for various districts in Vidarbha. Accordingly, EGS minister Nitin Raut will be the guardian minister for Nagpur, while minister of state for finance Rajendra Mulak will hold charge of Bhandara. Minister of state for food and civil supplies Ranjit Kamble is the new guardian minister for his Wardha district while social justice minister and tribal leader Shivajirao Moghe will handle his home district of Yavatmal.

Raut, who is a MLA from Nagpur and one of the prominent Dalit leaders from the Congress, was miffed after he was given charge of Bhandara with Mulak, who is close to the chief minister, getting Nagpur.