Cool response: Centre doesn't consider heat wave as natural calamity
TS told to give ex-gratia to kin of heat wave victims from SDRF funds.
Hyderabad: The Centre has made it clear that the heat wave is not included in the notified list of natural disasters like floods, drought etc. and as such, states cannot claim special financial assistance from it for heat wave victims.
While maintaining that the Union home ministry does not maintain information relating to the number of deaths which occur in various states due to heat waves, the Centre stated that 1,369 deaths were reported from AP and 541 from TS due to heat wave during the summer of 2015, as per information provided by the governments of these two states.
This was disclosed by Union minister of state for home, Kiren Rijuju in reply to a question raised by Congress MP Palvai Govardhan Reddy in Rajya Sabha.
Mr Rijuju said, “The issue of inclusion of any disaster in the list of notified natural disasters has been considered by successive Finance Commissions from time to time. The present 14th Finance Commission had also considered the proposal for the inclusion of heat wave but the same was not included in the Centrally notified list of natural disasters eligible for relief under the State Disaster Response Fund or National Disaster Response Fund.”
“However, considering the need for flexibility with regard to state-specific disasters, the 14th Finance Commission has recommended that expenditure for providing immediate relief to the victims of state-specific disasters, which are not included in the notified list of disasters eligible for assistance from SDRF / NDRF, can be met from SDRF within the limit of 10 per cent of annual fund allocation of SDRF subject to fulfilment of certain prescribed conditions,” he said.
The TS government has recently decided to pay compensation of Rs 50,000 each to the families of heat wave victims, irrespective of their age, contrary to the earlier norm of 65 years and above.
The government had pinned hopes on the Centre on extending financial assistance to TS for the purpose. About 230 heat wave deaths have been confirmed by three-member committees in districts, for whom the government needs to pay compensation.