Written by: Express News Service
2 min readNew DelhiJul 20, 2013 12:55 AM IST
First published on: Jul 20, 2013 at 12:55 AM IST
The Supreme Court on Friday sought reply from Uttarakhand and six other states for their alleged failure to implement the Disaster Management Act.
A Bench led by Justice A K Patnaik sought responses from the Centre and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands on a PIL alleging the governments had failed to implement the 2005 disaster law in true spirit.
The six other states asked to respond are Tamil Nadu,Orissa,Andhra Pradesh,Maharashtra,West Bengal and Gujarat. Referring to the natural calamity in Uttarakhand,the petitioner,advocate Gaurav Bansal,alleged the casualties would have been less had the state government implemented the provisions of the Act.
Nation witnessed the catastrophe that struck Uttarakhand and which resulted in numerous deaths and tragedies. It is respectfully submitted that in order to fight such catastrophe,Parliament,in year 2005,enacted the Disaster Management Act. However,it sounds pathetic that even after eight years of the Act,the Centre and the various state governments have failed to implement its provisions in true letter and spirit, the petition stated.
It said not only Uttarakhand,but Tamil Nadu,Orissa,Andhra Pradesh,Maharashtra,West Bengal,Gujarat and Andaman and Nicobar Islands have also failed to implement the provisions of the Act. The PIL also said there is no uniform policy in the country in case of granting ex-gratia compensation to the victims of disaster.
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