(a) whether the Thirteenth Finance Commission (TFC) has recommended to create four types of funds for calamity relief;
(b) if so, the details thereof and the status of implementation of the said recommendations;
(c) whether the Government has received any request from the State Government of Rajasthan for financial assistance under State Disaster Response Fund as recommended by TFC; and
(d) if so, the details thereof and the response of the Government thereto?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)
(a) to (d): The Thirteenth Finance Commission (TFC) has recommended constitution of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) by merging Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) by merging National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF). The SDRF and NDRF have been constituted by the Government of India based on the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission. The corpus of SDRF is contributed by the Government of India and the State Government in the ratio 75:25 for General Category States and 90:10 for Special Category States. NDRF is fully funded by the Government of India. Allocation of SDRF for the each State Government is done by the Finance Commission, for the Award period. The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued the guidelines to the State for operation of SDRF and NDRF on 28th September 2010 which is also accessible on the Ministry’s website: www.ndmindia.nic.in. The 13th Finance Commission has recommended allocation of Rs. 33580.93 crore in the SDRF for the years 2010-11 to 2014-15.
On the constitution of the Mitigation Fund, the 13th Finance Commission has recommended, “Mitigation and reconstruction activities should be kept out of the Schemes funded through Finance Commission grants and met out of overall development plan funds of the Center and the States”. Similarly, in respect of District Disaster Relief Fund (DDRF), the 13th Finance Commission, in its report had recommended that “the provision on DDRF in the Disaster Management Act may be reviewed and setting up of these funds left to the discretion of the States”. Keeping in view our federal polity, it is desirable that allocation of funds to various districts in DDRF out of SDRF may be left to the discretion of the concerned State Government. With regard to Rajasthan, the central contribution of SDRF to the State was released for all the years from 2010-11 to 2013-14. Further, the first instalment of Central share of SDRF for the current financial year of 2014-15, amounting to Rs. 273.79 crore has been released by the Government of India on 4th July 2014.