Floods and landslides during monsoons in India are quite common. To better prepare and effectively deal with such calamities of magnitude, both the Centre and states tap into disaster relief funds. Our next report explains more on what disaster relief funds are and how they are used.
The disaster management framework seeks to build a safe and disaster resilient India. National and state disaster response bodies, while deploying corpus funds, coordinate specialised response and relief to natural calamities of scale.
Relief funds are allocated to both the Centre and States. The State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) is the primary fund available with state governments to deal with notified disasters like Cyclone, drought, earthquake, landslide, flood, tsunami etc., The Centre contributes 75% of the allocation in SDRF and 90% for the special category states in two equal installments as per the recommendation of the Finance Commission.
As per the ministry of home affairs, funds from SDRF must be used only for meeting the expenditure for providing immediate relief to the victims. For local disasters specific to states, other than the notified ones, the state government can use up to 10% SDRF funds. The Fifteenth Finance Commission has recommended an allocation of Rs 1.6 lakh crore to the state disaster risk management fund (SDRMF), which also includes the SDRF, from FY22 to FY26.
The commission noted that of the total funds allocated to SDRF, 40% could be used for response and relief works, 30% for recovery and reconstruction and 10% for preparedness and capacity-building.
Meanwhile, the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) supplements the state funds in case of disasters of "severe nature" by providing additional funds to the state governments. For availing the NDRF funds, states are required to submit a memorandum indicating the sector-wise damage and need of funds. The Centre, on its part, assesses the damage and grants the additional funds to states.
The disaster relief funds have been a bone of contention in the recent past between the Centre and states. The Centre says that the primary responsibility for disaster management rests with the state governments and it supplements the efforts of states by providing requisite logistics and financial support. Some opposition states argue that not enough funds are being released from the national corpus.
Apart from the NDRF and SDRF, some special funds are also created to deal with disasters of large scale and magnitude. For instance, the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) was established entirely with public contributions and does not get any budgetary support. In the pandemic year, the government has come up with PM-CARES to strengthen the fight against Covid.
 "What is a disaster relief fund?")
