While asserting that there will be no centralisation of powers or discrimination with states in terms of resources, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said Tuesday that the cost of “freebies” distributed by state governments cannot be met from disaster management funds. Shah was replying to the debate on the Disaster Management Act, 2024, which was passed by the Rajya Sabha Tuesday. Lok Sabha had passed the legislation, which amends the Disaster Management Act of 2005, in December last year. “The Finance Commission has specified norms… how much will be given for disaster relief… if a hut is destroyed a certain amount will be given, if a concrete house falls it will be a certain amount. I would like to ask the states to place their request based on these norms. The freebies that you have distributed…that cannot be met with disaster management funds,” Shah said. He said the Centre does not indulge in “party politics” in the case of disasters. “Many raised allegations of bias… if there was any bias, it would be because of the law that was made in 2005 by the UPA. We had not changed it. The Finance Commission has developed a scientific method to decide financial assistance…from this the Narendra Modi government has not given a single paisa less to any State,” he said. During the discussion, Congress member Jebi Mather Hisham and CPI(M) member A A Rahim brought up the matter of allotment of funds to Kerala, particularly in the wake of the Wayanad landslide last year. Rahim said the Centre was allocating “petty amounts” to a state where natural disasters were frequent. Ritabrata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress raised concerns about the Bill not incorporating the “lessons learnt” from the 2005 Act. “A major concern has been excessive centralisation, especially on the matter of funds. Severity of the disaster is not a criterion for prompt disbursal of funds… states are constantly left at the mercy of the Union government,” he said. Congress member Neeraj Dangi referred to the “failed management of Covid”, pointing to a lack of “transparency” in the use of the PM-CARE funds. In response, Shah said, “We fought the best fight in the world.” “We made the vaccine and administered it… through telemedicine, doctors were guided to save lives…we gave the vaccine to everybody, but in administering the vaccine there was politics…we asked for a janta curfew, asked people to beat thalis, and light diyas…we were mocked. Those who mocked us turned into jokes themselves and the people of the country elected Modi once again,” Shah said. On PM-CARES, he said the Centre used it to fund oxygen plants, ventilators and vaccinations. “There is a record of the funds, and it was used transparently…from Bofors to 2G, you (Congress) have shown so much transparency that the country is tired,” he said. Shah said the purpose of the amendment Bill was to move from a reactive approach to disaster management towards “proactive risk reduction”, from manual monitoring to AI-based real-time monitoring, and from a government-led response to a “multidimensional response where society and citizens are involved.” “Members raised concerns of the Bill harming the federal structure…that there will be centralisation of power. The biggest responsibility of implementation is with the DDMA (District Disaster Management Authority) in the States. There is no possibility of harm to the federal structure,” he said.
