Introduction:

According to the Disaster Management Act, a disaster is defined as the following, “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 Ministry of Home Affairs decided to treat COVID-19 as a notified disaster for the purpose of providing assistance under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).

Body:

State Disaster Response fund (SDRF):

• The SDRF is constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and is the primary fund available with state governments for responses to notified disasters.
• The Central government contributes 75 per cent towards the SDRF allocation for general category states and UTs, and over 90 per cent for special category states/UTs, which includes northeastern states, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand).
• For SDRF, the Centre releases funds in two equal installments as per the recommendation of the Finance Commission.
• On the other hand, the National Disaster Response Fund, which is also constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 supplements the SDRF of a state, in case of a disaster of severe nature, provided adequate funds are not available in the SDRF.
• The disasters covered under the SDRF include cyclones, droughts, tsunamis, hailstorms, landslides, avalanches and pest attacks among others.

Current Utilization of SDRF funds during such situations:

• In 2018, in view of the devastation caused by the Kerala floods, political leaders in Kerala demanded that the floods be declared a “national calamity”.
• As of now, there is no executive or legal provision to declare a national calamity.
• According the MHA’s notification, the items and norms of assistance under SDRF include a compensation of Rs 4 lakh per deceased, including those involved in relief work and for COVID-19 positive people requiring hospitalisation, the costs will be in accordance to rates fixed by the state governments.
• The Centre said that cost of hospitalization for managing COVID-19 patients would be at the rates fixed by the state governments.
• The state government can use SDRF found for providing temporary accommodation, food, clothing and medical care for people affected and sheltered in quarantine camps, other than home quarantine, or for cluster containment operations.
• The cost of consumables for sample collection would be taken from the funds which can be sued to support for checking, screening and contact tracing.
• Further, funds can also be withdrawn for setting up additional testing laboratories within the government set up.
• Further SDRF money can also be used for procuring thermal scanners and ventilation and other necessary equipment.

Conclusion:

The move would enable the states to spend a larger chunk of funds from the State Disaster Response Fund to fight the pandemic