Amid the Nationwide Lockdown for 21 days announce by PM Narendra Modi on Tuesdsay, here is the all about the laws government can invoke to implement the lockdown:
All about the Epidemic Diseases Act,1897:
Under this law, the Central government as well as state government, have the power to take special measures and prescribe regulations to prevent the spread of a “dangerous epidemic disease”.
Under Section 2A of the Act, the Central government has the power to take any measures or prescribe regulations to inspect any ship or vessel leaving or arriving in any port and to detain any person planning to leave or arrive into India. The revised travel advisory issued by a group of ministers, including the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, is an example of this.
State governments also have the power under Section 2(1) of the Epidemic Act to take measures to prevent the outbreak of a dangerous epidemic disease by prescribing regulations to be enforced with respect to any person or group of people. An example of this would be the order on March 16 under the Delhi Epidemics Diseases, COVID -19 Regulations, 2020, whereby the Delhi government has restricted gatherings with groups of more than 50 persons till March 31.
Despite such expansive powers under the Epidemic Act, the phrase “dangerous epidemic disease” has not been defined in the law and the lack of such a definition warrants a serious review of this law by Parliament. Besides, the act does not provide any specific guidelines or infrastructure to deal with an epidemic. To remedy this, Parliament in 2005 enacted the Disaster Management Act.
All about the Disaster Management Act,2005:
The object and purpose of the Disaster Management Act is to manage disasters, including preparation of mitigation strategies, capacity-building and more. In the popular imagination, a disaster is usually associated with a natural calamity such as a cyclone or an earthquake. Even the definition of a “disaster” in Section 2 (d) of the Disaster Management Act states that a disaster means a “catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence in any area, arising from natural or man made causes…”. To address the current epidemic outbreak, the Central government has included the Covid-19 outbreak as “Notified Disaster” as a “critical medical condition or pandemic situation” .
Under the act, governments get access to appropriate funds in order to respond and provide immediate relief to victims. These are the National Disaster Response Fund, the State Disaster Response Fund and the District Disaster Response Fund.
Under Section 46 of the Act, the National Executive Committee and the National Disaster Management Authority can authorise the use of such funds for emergency responses, relief and rehabilitation.
State Disaster Response Fund is being used for multiple purposes, such as setting up quarantine facilities, establishing additional labs, covering the cost of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, procuring thermal scanners, ventilators, air purifiers and consumables for government hospitals including food, clothing and medical care to people isolated there. In addition, they are also used to cover the cost of consumables for sample collection, screening and contact tracing of positive persons.
