SC to States: Why don't you treat Drought as Disaster and a Natural calamity ?

13 Apr 2016

Categories: Latest News Uncategorized

April,13,2016:

ASG said there was no statute to regulate declaration of drought.

With around 10 states reeling under drought, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre why the natural calamity could not be brought under the Disaster Management Act to release funds for the welfare of affected families.

A Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and N V Ramana mooted the idea after noting that many states had not declared drought.

The Centre informed the court that its hands were tied and it could not force states to declare a drought as the matter came within their domain.

"Assuming that there is a gross problem in states and people are suffering due to drought, then can the Centre say it cannot intervene and do anything?" the bench asked

Additional solicitor general P S Narsimha said there was no statute to regulate declaration of drought.

The bench pointed out that drought could be covered under the Disaster Management Act.

Narasimha replied that drought was not expressly mentioned in the Disaster Management Act, but it could be covered under loss of crops.

The Centre objected to the court’s proposal to have a rapporteur conduct a field survey of the situation in the affected States, saying this would only add to the confusion and create a parallel government. The law officer instead suggested that the apex court itself monitor the situation by issuing mandamus.

This annoyed the apex court, which said “when we pass directions, you say we are encroaching. It is an overreach. If we don't do anything, the citizens would say we are not doing anything.”

In the previous hearing on a PIL filed by NGO Swaraj Abhiyan to declare drought as a national emergency, the court had slammed the Gujarat and Haryana governments for “hazy” presentation of facts and outdated charts on rainfall data.

The Bench had voiced its exasperation over the lack of updated data on rainfall and water scarcity, and asked the States if they were even remotely serious about people.

The court sought information on the number of people and districts affected by drought, as well as the budgetary allocation for and expenditure of national and state disaster relief funds.

The Centre assured the bench that it would place the information before the court on April 19, when the case will be taken up for hearing.

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Tags : Disaster Management Act drought-affected States Natural calamity Supreme Court

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