Supreme Court pulls up Centre for no drought relief

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Centre for washing off its hands in providing drought relief when about 33 crore population in the country is affected due to drought.

The government on Wednesday admitted that the situation was grave, with the water level dropping to alarming levels in many reservoirs. With 11 states being hit hard, a few chief ministers are already worrying about the prospect of a delayed monsoon and less rain this year. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana have already sought immediate release of relief funds from the Centre.

Giving a series of directions, a bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and N.V. Ramana, acting on a PIL filed by Swaraj Abhyan, said the Centre complicated the matter by introducing the concept of ‘federalism’ that is the relationship between the Union and the States with respect to drought.

Writing the judgment Justice Lokur said the ostensible purpose of introducing this concept is to enable the Union of India to wash its hands off in matters concerning drought declaration and to give enough elbow room to a State Government to decide whether to declare a drought or not since the Manual is only a reference document and a guide for action and the State Governments could face situations under which they may need to deviate from the guidance given in the Manual.

The Bench said of the 10 States in which drought has been declared (other than Gujarat) the number of affected districts is 234 representing more than 1/3rd of the districts in the country; the total population in the districts affected by drought is about 33 crores which is about 1/4th of the population of the country.

Swaraj Abhiyan says that the figure is between 40 crores and above 50 crores that is about at least 1/3rd of our population. It is true that the degree of severity or intensity of the drought might impact differently in different parts of a district or a smaller unit, but the fact is that drought does exist even in those areas, as per the assessment of the State Government,” it said.