[Wayanad Landslides] ₹782.99 Crores Available With State Disaster Response Fund Including ₹291 Crore Central Share: UoI To Kerala High Court

The Division Bench comprising Justice A.K.Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Syam Kumar V.M. has now ordered the State and the Amicus Curiae to submit their response to this statement.

The development comes while the Court was hearing a suo moto case initiated after landslides in Wayanad.

“The statement provides details constitution and administration of national and state disaster response funds, the communications that have been issued by the Deputy Secretary with regard to the usage of those funds, details of flood forecast stations of CWC in the State of Kerala, details of monitoring stations in State of Kerala as also details of the flood situation as assessed by various authorities in the State of Kerala. The statement also mentions the different inputs given by various Ministries in response to the suggestions made by Amicus through various reports submitted before Court….We therefore direct State Government and the Amicus Curiae to file their responses to the statement filed on behalf of the Central government,” Court said in its order.

Additional Solicitor General ARL Sundaresan appearing on behalf of Central government filed the statement after getting instructions from Director (DM-I) Ashish V Gawai, Ministry of Home Affairs of the Disaster Management Division.

The Court was informed that the primary responsibility for managing disasters vests with the State government and the Central government provides logistic and financial support to help the efforts of the State government.

As per the statement, Kerala has been allotted Rs 291.20 crores as Central Share- released in two instalments after the landslide, on 31st July 2024 and 1st October 2024 respectively, and Rs 96.80 as State Share for 2024-25 under the SDRF.

It was also stated that the Principal Accountant General (A&E), Kerala has reported that they have a balance of Rs.394.99 crore in its SDRF account.

Thus, the Central Government stated that the total SDRF balance available is rupees 782.99 crores (Rs. 291.20 crores of Central Share + Rs. 96.80 crores of State Share + Rs. 394.99 crores as SDRF balance), for managing and providing relief in the disaster affected areas.

The Central government further submitted that the State government has requested additional assistance of Rs 214.68 crores from NDRF for immediate temporary relief in Wayanad. It was stated that the State can request such additional funds after an assessment by the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT). The IMCT has already assessed Wayanad, and the State government is instructed to constitute a multi-sectoral team to conduct a Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA) to evaluate recovery and reconstruction needs. It was stated that the Central government would consider Kerala's request for additional financial assistance to Kerala after reviewing the PDNA submitted by the State government.

The statement of the Central government also mentions details of the inputs given by different government ministries (Central Water Commission, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Indian Meteorological Department, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, Ministry of Mines & Geological Survey of India) for prevention and management of disasters in Kerala.

Regarding the loan waive-off by banks for the landslide victims, the Assistant Solicitor General has sought for more time to obtain instructions.

The matter has been posted to October 25 for further hearing.

Case Title: In Re: Prevention And Management Of Natural Disasters In Kerala V State Of Kerala

Case Number: WP(C) 28509/ 2024 & Connected Cases 

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