Centre declines to declare 'Hudhud' as national calamity
New Delhi, Dec 3 (INN): Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday said that there was no provision in the guidelines to declare a 'natural calamity' as 'national calamity'.
Therefore, in view of the intensity and magnitude, the cyclone 'Hudhud', which had the Andhra Pradesh in October this year, has been adjudged a calamity of a 'severe nature'.
In his written reply to a question posed by TDP MP T Devender Goud in Rajya Sabha, Rijiju said that the concerned State Governments were required to undertake necessary relief measures of immediate nature in the cyclone 'Hudhud' affected areas out of the funds readily available in the corpus of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) as per norms.
"Financial assistance is towards relief and not for compensation of loss as suffered. Additional expenditure, if any, incurred over and above or on other than approved items/norms, is required to be met by the States from their own resources and not from SDRF/NDRF," he said.
The Union Minister said that the Government of India adjudges a calamity of 'severe nature' on case-to-case basis taking into account inter-alia the intensity and magnitude of the calamity, level of relief assistance, capacity of the State Government to tackle the problem, the alternatives and flexibility available with the Plan to provide succor and relief etc.,
The priority is immediate relief and response assistance in the context of a natural calamity. As such there are no fixed prescribed norms. However, for calamity of a 'severe nature', additional assistance is also considered from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), after following the established procedure.
Rijiju said that the Centre has released an assistance of Rs. 515.42 crore including Rs. 115.42 Cr from SDRF and Rs 400 Cr for NDRF, to Andhra Pradesh for immediate relief operations.
The Centre has provided all possible logistics assistance like deployment of the Army, Air Force, Navy, National Disaster Response Force at strategic locations, sufficient food, medicines, satellite phone etc., to the affected State Governments for managing the cyclone and its aftermath.
News Posted: 4 December, 2014
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