Request by A.P. Government to declare Hudhud Cyclone as National Calamity
The concerned State Governments are 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.
With regard to declaring a national calamity, it is informed that there is no provision to declare a natural calamity as a ‘national calamity/disaster’ in the guidelines. However, 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. Keeping in view of the intensity & magnitude of cyclone ‘Hudhud’ of October 2014 in Andhra Pradesh, it has been adjudged a calamity of a ‘severe nature’ for all practical purposes.
In order to support the affected people of the State, the Government of India has released assistance of Rs. 515.42 crore (Rs. 115.42 cr. from SDRF + Rs. 400 crore for NDRF) to Andhra Pradesh for immediate relief operations. The Government of India has provide 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.
This was stated by Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply to Shri Devender Gout T. in the Rajya Sabha today.
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