Disaster Relief in India

Disaster Relief in India

Subject: Polity

Section: Msc

Context: Uttarakhand asks Centre for declaration of ‘national disaster’ after major floods.

Key Points:

What qualifies as “national disaster”?

• There is no official or defined category of “national disasters”. Disasters of this nature come under the 2005 Disaster Management Act, which defines a “disaster” as “a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence in any area, arising from natural or man made causes, or by accident or negligence which results in substantial loss of life or human suffering or damage to, and destruction of, property, or damage to, or degradation of, environment, and is of such a nature or magnitude as to be beyond the coping capacity of the community of the affected area”.

The setup:

• The Act saw the creation of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), to be headed by the Prime Minister, and State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) headed by respective Chief Ministers.
• Together with district-level authorities, an integrated Disaster Management setup was to be created in India.
• The Act also led to the National Disaster Response Force. It has several battalions or teams, which are responsible for on-ground relief and rescue work in several states.

How is disaster relief funded ?

• The National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) is mentioned in the 2005 Disaster Management Act. Similarly, SDRFs exist for the states and are the primary funds available to state governments for responses to notified disasters. The Central Government contributes 75% to the SDRF in general states and 90% in northeastern and Himalayan states.
• Successive Finance commission (set-up under the Article 280 of the Constitution from time-to-time), determines the allocation of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) of each State for each of the financial years for entire Award period.
• The 15th Finance Commission had adopted a new methodology for state-wise allocations which is a combination of capacity (as reflected through expenditure), risk exposure (area and population) hazard and vulnerably (risk index), instead of existing methodology of expenditure based.
• The 15th Finance Commission has allocated a total corpus of Rs. 1,28,122.40 crore in SDRF to all States for the Award Period (2021-22 to 2025-2026), of which Central Share is Rs. 98,080.80 crore and State Government’s share is Rs. 30,041.60 crore.

Who finances when and what ?

• The SDRF is to be used only for meeting the expenditure for providing immediate relief to the victims of notified calamities like cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, fires, floods, tsunamis, hailstorms, landslides, avalanches, cloud bursts, pest attacks and frost/cold waves.
• The state government is primarily responsible for undertaking rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures in the event of a disaster. But these can be supplemented with Central assistance.
• In the event of a calamity of a severe nature, where the requirement of funds for relief operations is beyond the funds available in the State’s Disaster Response Fund account, additional Central assistance is provided from National Disaster Response Fund, after following the laid down procedure.
• Rs. 54,770 crore has been allocated by the 15th Finance Commission under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
• In addition, an amount of Rs 32,030 crore has been allocated by the commission under the State Disaster Mitigation Fund (SDMF), which is for carrying out works such as restoration of forests, raising public awareness, etc. and Rs. 13,693 crore for the National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) for the Award Period (2021-22 to 2025-26).