New Delhi: In the wake of heavy rains and damages due to it, the Centre on Wednesday released Rs 7,532 crore to the state governments for immediate disaster response steps. The Centre has also relaxed the guidelines to provide funds to the states in view of the heavy rains and associated natural disasters.
The money was released by the department of expenditure, under the ministry of finance, on Wednesday to 22 state governments for their respective state disaster response funds (SDRF). The amount has been released as per the recommendations of the ministry of home affairs.
Among the states, Maharashtra got the highest amount Rs 1420.80 crore, followed by Uttar Pradesh Rs 812 crore, Odisha Rs 707.6 crore, and Bihar Rs 624.4 crore. Himachal Pradesh which witnessed massive landslides and destructions got only Rs 180.4 crore.
“In the wake of heavy rains across the country, the guidelines have been relaxed and the amount has been released as immediate assistance to the states without waiting for the utilisation certificate of the amount provided to the states in the last financial year,” officials of the ministry of finance said.
The SDRF has been constituted in each state under Section 48 (1) (a) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The fund is the primary fund available with state governments for responses to notified disasters. The Central government contributes 75 per cent to the SDRF in general states and 90 per cent in North-East and Himalayan states.
The annual Central contribution is released in two equal instalments as per the recommendation of the finance commission. As per the guidelines, the funds are released on receipt of utilisation certificate of the amount released in the earlier instalment and receipt of a report from the state government on the activities undertaken from SDRF. However, in view of the urgency, these requirements were waived while releasing the funds this time.
The SDRF is to be used only for meeting the expenditure for providing immediate relief to the victims of notified calamities like cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloud burst, pest attack and frost and cold wave. Allocation of SDRF funds to the states is based on multiple factors like past expenditure, area, population, and disaster risk index. These factors reflect states' institutional capacity, risk exposure, and hazard and vulnerability.
Based on the 15th finance commission recommendations, the Central government has allocated Rs 1,28,122.40 crore for SDRF for years 2021-22 to 2025-26. Out of this amount, the Central government’s share is Rs 98,080.80 crore.
