Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha on January 10, 2021 declared ‘heavy snowfall’ as state specific natural calamity under State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) norms.
- ‘Heavy Snowfall’ does not figure in the list of ‘natural calamities’ under SDRF norms, hence disbursement of relief and ex-gratia for the damages due to heavy snowfall was not possible for the Districts’ Disaster Management Authorities.
- But after above decision, processing of ex-gratia relief under SDRF will become faster.
What are the rules for SDRF?
- State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) is constituted under the section 48 of (1) (a) of Disaster Management act 2005 is a primary fund available with State Government for responses to notified disaster.
- Central Government contribute 75% of SDRF allocation for general category States/UTs and 90% for special category States (North East State, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir).
- SDRF shall be used only for meeting the expenditure for providing immediate relief to the victims.
- Disaster(s) covered under SDRF are Cyclone, Drought, Earthquake, Floods, Tsunami, Hailstorm, Landslide, Avalanche, Cloud burst, Pest attack, Frost, Cold wave.
- Local disaster: State Government may use up to 10% of the funds available under SDRF for providing immediate relief to the victims of the natural disaster that day considered to be “Disaster” within the local contacts in the State and which is not included in the notified list of disaster of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
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