As Kerala 'cries' for declaring Wayanad landslide as national disaster, provisions say otherwise

WAYANAD: Ever since the Wayanad landslide took place on July 30, there have been repeated calls to declare it a national disaster from the Pinarayi Vijayan government, the Congress-led Opposition and several other MPs from the opposition, however, the fact of the matter is such that a concept does not exist under the rules.

This discussion takes place at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to arrive in Wayanad on Saturday to have a firsthand experience of the extent of the tragedy and this issue is definitely going to be again raised in the review meeting to be chaired by the PM after he visits patients in the hospital and also those in the relief camps.

Among those who have raised the matter include former Wayanad MP and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. Taking to social media, he wrote, “Thank you, Modi ji, for visiting Wayanad to personally take stock of the terrible tragedy. This is a good decision. I am confident that once the Prime Minister sees the extent of the devastation firsthand, he will declare it a national disaster.”

However, as demands grow for declaring the tragedy as a national disaster, according to a 2013 Lok Sabha reply by the then Minister of State for Home, Mullappally Ramachandran, "there is no provision to declare a natural disaster as a national disaster."

Ramachandran, a former State Congress president and presently not in the front of political activity, in 2013 had further stated that the “Government of India adjudges a calamity of severe nature on case-to-case basis taking into account inter-alia the intensity and magnitude of the calamity, level of relief assistance, the capacity of the State Government to tackle the problem, the alternatives and flexibility available within the plan to provide succour and relief etc. The priority is immediate relief and response assistance in the context of a natural calamity. As such, there are no fixed prescribed norms. However, for calamity of a 'severe nature', additional assistance is also considered from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), after following the established procedure.”

Ramachandran then went on to point out that state governments concerned are primarily responsible for undertaking necessary rescue and relief measures in the wake of natural disasters.

Incidentally, Vijayan in a letter to PM Modi, has already brought up this demand and so have practically every State Minister in the Vijayan government and also the Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, V.D. Satheesan.

On Friday, the state government made a presentation of the need for a central package which consists of Rs 1,200 crore, which is the estimated loss, and another Rs 800 crore for various other activities.