More than 50 years after it was set up, Civil Defence is set to undergo a major shift in its duties with the Centre deciding to give its volunteers the responsibility of dealing with natural disasters. Raised after the 1962 Sino-Indian war, its primary duty so far has been to protect people and property from external aggression. But with the force being dormant for many years now, the Centre on Wednesday decided to revamp it by inducting more personnel and upgrading training facilities to make Civil Defence more broad-based. This will be done at a cost of Rs 100 crore. The decision was taken at the first meeting of the reconstituted Home Minister's Civil Defence Advisory Committee. Defence Minister A K Antony attended the meeting in his capacity as a member. The committee gave its nod to suggestions of the K M Singh Committee to integrate Civil Defence with the disaster management framework. Necessary amendments would be made to the Civil Defence Act, 1968, an official release said. A Group of Ministers (GoM) had also observed that the 5 lakh Civil Defence volunteers needed new orientation and training. Its earlier town-based approach would now give way to a district-based approach since rural areas also needed proper assistance in case of natural disasters, an official pointed out. All 604 districts will be covered by Civil Defence in a phased manner.