Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order authorising the States to use State Disaster Response Funds (SDRF) to provide “for temporary accommodation, food, clothing, medical care, etc.” to homeless people, including the stranded migrant labourers.
The government has decided to treat COVID-19 as a “notified disaster”.
Key Points
SDRF has been constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
It is the primary fund available with the State governments for responses to notified disasters to meet expenditure for providing immediate relief.
The Centre contributes 75% of the SDRF allocation for general category States and Union Territories and 90% for special category States and Union Territories (northeastern States, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir).
The annual Central contribution is released in two equal installments as per the recommendation of the Finance Commission.
Disaster (s) covered under SDRF: Cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloudburst, pest attack, frost and cold waves.
A State Government may use up to 10% of the funds available under the SDRF for providing immediate relief to the victims of natural disasters that they consider to be ‘disasters’ within the local context in the State and which are not included in the notified list of disasters of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
