The ongoing spell of heat waves in many parts of the country has once again reopened discussions on the inclusion of heatwaves as one of the notified disasters under the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005.
- If heat wave is included in the notified disasters list, states will be allowed to use their disaster response funds to provide compensation and relief, and carry out a range of other activities for managing the fallout of a heatwave.
- Currently, states need to use their own funds for these activities.
- Currently, there are 12 categories of disasters which are notified under this Act. These are cyclones, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloudburst, pest attack, and frost and cold waves.
- The provisions of the Disaster Management Act allow states to draw money from the two funds that have been set up under this law — the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) at the national level and the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) at the state level.
- The states first utilise the funds available in the SDRF, and only if the magnitude of the disaster is unmanageable with the SDRF, states seek the money from the NDRF.
- The entire money of the NDRF comes from the central government, states contribute 25% of the money in the SDRF (10% in case of special category states), the rest comes from the Centre.
- The money in these funds cannot be used for any purpose other than response and management of notified disasters.
