REPORT OF THE
EXPERT COMMITTEE ON NATURAL CALAMITY RELIEF FUND AND NATIONAL FUND FOR CALAMITY
RELIEF
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Preparation of Plan and Manuals for Disaster Preparedness/Action Plans |
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Review of the existing norms of assistance
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Scientific methods for assessment of
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FOREWORD
The responsibility for execution of relief
and rehabilitation operations in the wake of natural calamities rests with the
State Governments. The Central Government supplements the efforts of the State
Governments by providing additional resources in accordance with the
recommendations of the Finance Commissions appointed after every five years.
The 10th Finance Commission which gave its recommendations for the
period 1995-2000. inter-alia recommended the setting up of a Committee of
Experts and representatives of the State Governments to draw up a list of
items. The expenditure on which alone would be chargeable to the CRF as also
the norms of assistance from National Fund for Calamity Relief (NFCR). An
Expert Committee was accordingly constituted by the Ministry of Agriculture in
April, 1995 which identified the items of assistance from the CRF and items and
norms of assistance in case of NFCR. These were communicated to State
Governments. On the Basis of feed back from some of the State Governments, the
norms of assistance permissible from the NFCR were finalized and communicated
to the State Governments who were given flexibility of applying these norms
with some variations for CRF
Also. Subsequently, these norms were
considered to be unrealistic by some State Governments and also by Central teams
visiting the States for assessing damage and requirement of relief and
rehabilitation in the wake of natural calamities. Accordingly, the Ministry of
Agriculture constituted a Committee of Experts on 31.10.1997 to review the
existing norms of assistance from the
CRF and the NFCR in the wake of natural calamities and related matters, under
the Chairmanship of CRC and Additional Secretary, DAS with members from
Planning Commission, Ministry of
Finance, some other Central Ministries and State Governments of Karnataka,
Punjab, M.P. Gujarat and Sikkim.
The
Committee held several meetings to finalize the items and norms of assistance
under the CRF and NFCR and has given its recommendations with an eye on
improving the relief package to the states. Especially the victims. The
Committee acknowledges with thanks the active and valuable cooperation of the
members, particularly Shri Anil Sinha, Joint Secretary (NDM) and Member
Secretary Shri S.K.Swami, Director(NDM)and SHRI Devinder Nath Under Secretary
(NDM) Department of Agriculture & Cooperation in finalizing the report. It
is hoped that the recommendations of the Committee will be useful in providing
the desired assistance to the States to undertake the relief and rehabilitation
work effectively.
Sd\-(Bhagat Singh)
Additional Secretary and
Central Relief Commissioner,
Government of India.
REPORT
THE COMMITTEE TO
REVIEW THE ITEMS AND NIORM OF ASSISTANCE FROM CALAMITY RELIEF FUND AND NATIONAL
FUND FOR CALAMITY RELIEF
The responsibility for execution of
relief and rehabilitation operation in the wake of natural calamities rests
with the State Government. The Central Government supplements the efforts of
the State Governments by providing additional resources in accordance with the
recommendations of the Finance Commissions appointed after every 5 years. The
policy pertaining to financing of relief expenditure underwent changes after a
period of fair trial. The policy pertaining to financing of
relief expenditure underwent changes after a period of fair trial. The
earlier system of margin money was replaced with the concept of Calamity Relief
Fund (CRF) through the recommendations of Ninth Finance Commission(1990-91 to
1994-95). The CRF was constituted for each State with allocated amount contributed
by the Central & State Governments in the ratio of 3.1. The State level
Committee headed by the Chief Secretary was empowered to decide on all matters
including norms of assistance. The Tenth Finance Commission(TFC),while
continuing the scheme of CRF, recommended creation of a National Fund for
Calamity Relief(NFCR) to extend additional financial assistance to the State Governments in the event of a calamity
of rare severity. The fund is administered by a sub-committee of National
Development Council headed by the Agriculture Minister and comprising
Dy.Chairman, Planning Commission, two Union Ministers and five Chief Ministers
nominated by the Prime Minister, on a
year to year basis, as members.
2. The
TFC also recommended setting up of a Committee of experts to draw up a list of
items that could be incorporated in the CRF and to work out admissible items of
expenditure, norms etc. for NFCR. The State Level Committee was required to
prescribe norms for the amount that could be spent under each of the approved
items which could be modified by the Department of Agriculture &
Cooperation, if considered necessary. Subject to this, the State Level
Committee is competent to decide on all matters connected with financing relief
expenditure,
3. Ministry
of Agriculture, in april,1995,appointed a Committee of Experts which
recommended items and norms of assistance. Based on the report of the Expert
Committee and the information received from a few States on norms of
assistance, the Department issued
guidelines to the State Governments for adoption of norms for various items in
order to avoid wide divergence in the scale of assistance from State to State.
As per these guidelines, the State Governments were requested to adhere to
Central norms with variations upto 50% in case of some items keeping in view
the local conditions and other exigencies. The States of Punjab, Haryana,
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tripura represented
that the norms prescribed by Expert Committee were on the lower side when
compared to State norms. Some of the States pointed out that they could not
reduce the scale of assistance.
4. The
TFC did not lay down any crierion for categorising a calamity as one of rare
severity to qualify for the assistance from NFCR. As per the TFC any definition
of calamity of rare severity bristles with insurmountable difficulties and is
likely to be counter-productive. The Commission was of the view that a calamity
of rare severity would necessarily have to be adjudged on a case to case basis,
taking into account inter-alia the intensity and magnitude of the calamity,
level of relief assistance needed, the capacity of the State to handily the
problem, funds available out of the balance of CRF .
5.1 A
number of State Governments requested the Government of India to recast the
norms of assistance as according to them ,these were far from realistic. The
Central Teams which visited the affected areas to assess the situation also
expressed their concern about the unrealistic nature of some of the norms. The
Committee of Secretaries (COS), in a meeting, recommended, inter alia, adoption
of scientific methods of assessing damage as well as determining the
requirement of relief and rehabilitation. Space Technology with combined use of
satellite communication and satellite remote sensing provides valuable,
accurate and timely information on natural disaster, as described below:-
(a)
Remote
sensing technique using satellite imageries provides significant information on
the extent of damage due to natural calamities very rapidly. There are several
State Government and Central Government
Organisations like National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) at Hyerab which
monitor natural calamities like flood, drought and cyclone nation wise at
State/District level and make
impact/damage assessment using satellite remote sensing technique. The
Comm. recommends that such satellite remote sensing based
maps/bulletins/reports should be increasingly utilized to determine the extent
of damage in various sections of economy like Agriculture
(Crops),infrastructure (Rail/Road),Plantations etc.
(b)
The
type of construction i.e. Kachha house. Pucca house or hut would need to be
kept in view while calculating the number of damaged houses and huts. State
Government should make house to house survey of the damaged houses.
The
Inter-State Council has recommended that the norms of assistance in the wake of
natural calamities should be reviewed in
consultation with the State Governments.
5.2 Keeping
in view the above position as well as the experience of working of the
operation of CRF and NFCR during 1995-96 to 1997-98. Ministry of Agriculture
decided to constitute a Committee to review the items of norms of assistance
from CRF and NFCR with the following terms of reference:-
(a)
To
review the existing list of items and norms of assistance prescribed by the
Ministry of Agriculture as debitable to the CRF;
(b)
To
review existing norms of assistance from the NFCR;
(c)
To
suggest scientific methods for assessment of damage and requirement of relief
and rehabilitation;
(d)
To
suggest scientific methods for assessment of damage and requirement of relief
and rehabilitation;
(e)
To
suggest guidelines for the memoranda to be submitted to the 11th
Finance Commission for increasing the corpus of the Fund keeping in view the
experience of last two years.
A copy of the constitution of the
Committee is at appendix.
6. The
Committee held detailed deliberations in various meetings. In addition it
reviewed extensively the relevant records available in the Ministry as well as
those received from various concerned Central Ministries/Departments and State
Governments. It also took note of the norms adopted for similar items by other
Ministries.
7. The
Committee is of the view that the objective of the relief assistance was to
assist the victims to rehabilitate themselves and enable them to resume their
normal economic activity. It was not possible for any Government, even in the
developed countries, to compensate losses occurring due to natural calamities
from the relief funds. The Committee is
also of the view that relief assistance is primarily meant for providing relief
of immediate nature to the victims of natural calamities. In other words, it is
meant to kick-start their livelihood. The long-term rehabilitation or
improvements should be undertaken from the on-going plan schemes. Further, it
is felt that the spirit of relief assistance is to focus on victims,
specifically the farmers the landless labourers, persons living below poverty
line as well as those belonging to vulnerable sections of the society.
Stress of relief operations should also
be on prevention of out-break of epidemics and resultant diseases during post-disaster
period. The Committee also feels that the expenditure on repair &
reconstruction of infrastructures belonging to Govt./Organisations/PSUs should
be incurred from their annual budgets and not from relief funds except to the
minimum extent needed to provide relief to the affected areas and the
people. This thinking of the Committee
is in consonance with the genesis of NFCR as per para 9.17 of the
recommendations of the 10th Finance Commission which provides that a
calamity of rare severity would necessarily have to be adjudged on a case-to-case
basis taking into account inter-alia the intensity and magnitude of the
calamity, level of relief assistance needed the capacity of a State to tackle
the problem, the alternatives and the flexibility available within the plans to
provide succour and relief.
8. The
recommendations of the Committee on various terms of reference are as under:-
8.1 Review of the existing list of items and
norms of assistance prescribed by the Ministry of Agriculture as debitable to
CRF/NFCR
(a) The
Committee recommends to retain all the 4 existing items of assistance under
this head. The Committee is of the view that assistance should also be extended
to the persons who sustain grievous injuries requiring hospitalisation for more
than a week
8.1.2
Agriculture
input subsidy
(b) The Committee recommends that
assistance for agriculture input subsidy should be extended only where crop
losses are to the extent of 50% or more. The assessment of crop losses should be
based on States prevalent system of assessment of damage such as annawari etc.
The Committee agrees to the existing condition that this assistance should be
limited to small and marginal farmers only as they have limited resources.
While medium and big farmers have greater capacity and resources to bear the
losses in the wake of natural calamities.
(c) The Committee observes that there is a
separate item at SI.No.13,”additional nutrients to animal feeding to prevent
malnutrition” whereas under the head ‘animal husbandry,’ there already exists a
provision for fodder, veterinary care and fodder concentrate. It is of the view
that these items are similar and overlapping. Hence we recommended that item
no.13 should be deleted and item no.5(b)
should be read as “provision of fodder/fodder concentrate and veterinary care.”
The Committee also recommends that item of “procurement, storage and movement
of fodder” which indicated as a separate item at SI.No.10 in the existing item
of assistance should be shown under the item animal husbandry as (c).
(d) The Committee has taken note of the fact
that the cost of damage to houses varies and
it is directly related to the nature and extent of damage. The extent of
damage, in turn. depends on the type of construction other circumstances being
equal. Categorisation of house type in terms of only pukka, catcher and
semi-pukka houses does not appear to be very rational. It is, therefore,
recommended that the existing categories of fully damaged and partially damaged
houses should be recategorised as (a) fully destroyed/damaged-which has to be
re-built (b) where either roof or walls require replacement or restoration: and
(c) houses which do not suffer any structural damages and can be restored with
simple and minor repairs. Thus the following three categories are recommended:-
Fully destroyed
Severely damaged
Marginally damaged
We recommended that no relief is required to be
given for marginally damaged houses as these can be repaired with a little
expenditure or their repairs can wait for quite sometime.
The definition of Catcher Pukka and
Semi-Pukka houses given as under should
be adopted for assessment of damage to houses:
Katch
House A Katcha structure is
one the walls and roof of which are made of mud, bamboo, grass, leaves, reeds,
thatch or unburnt bricks.
Pucca
House A Pukka structure is one the walls and roof of which are made
of burnt bricks, stone, cement, concrete, jack board(cement-plastered reeds),
mosaic, tiles or timber. Tiles, galvanised tin or asbestos cement sheets used
in construction of roofs will be regarded as pukka material.
Semi-Pukka
House A semi-Pukka structure is one
of which either the roof or the walls, but not both, is made like that of a
pukka structure.
We recommended that for purpose of
relief a semi-pukka house should be treated as pukka house. It would make
enumeration simple and eliminate discretion of the survey party.
(e) The Committee is of the view that the
relief funds should not be used for repair/reconstruction of damaged
infrastructure belonging to Govt. PSUs and other large organisation. Since the
natural calamities are a recurrent phenomenon such organisations should keep
necessary provision in their annual budgets for repair/reconstruction
activities in the wake of natural calamities based on the past experience and
the vulnerability. As the kitty of relief assistance is limited, it should be
confined to only those items which were directly and closely related to the
victims so as to provide them relief and succour . In view of this, the
Committee recommends that assistance for restoration of damaged infrastructure
should be restricted only to immediate drinking water supply in rural areas
community owned social structures and primary, middle and high/secondary
schools in villages and small town. In case of other categories of
infrastructure the concerned Departments of the States and or the Govt. of
India should make adequate provision for these in their on-going
programmes/plan schemes/projects etc.
(f) The importance of public education and
community participation for effective disaster preparedness and mitigation in
order to reduce the adverse impact of natural disasters can hardly be over-emphasised.
The Committee recommends that in addition to the existing item of post-disaster
public education (item-24), immediate pre-disaster public education and
awareness activities be also included. Further, public education, particularly,
an awareness activity among the farmers about facility of insurance available
to them is of very high importance. The farmers should be educated about not
only the availability of the insurance for their crops but also about the
procedural details of filling of forms for claiming insurance. But assistance
for this item would come only from CRF and will not include payment of
insurance preemie from the CRF/NFCR. No assistance for these activities should
be provided from NFCR.
(g) The Committee also recommends that the
existing item of “improvement to the flood Control amenities as a preparatory
measure” should be deleted as it is not specific in nature and will encourage
expenditure on new works or large-scale improvements in the existing
infrastructures. Thus leaving
inadequate funds for immediate relief in the wake of calamities. However
immediate breaches of embankments can be taken up for immediate repairs.
8.16 Preparation of
Plan and Manuals for Disaster Preparedness/Action Plans
(h) The issue of preparations of disaster
preparedness and mitigation plans for difference disasters and different areas
is being emphasised in various for a. Such plans will surely assist in
formulation of disaster reduction programmes/policies resulting in minimising
the adverse effect of natural disasters. This issue has gained importance and
urgency in the context of recent earthquake disaster of Chamois (U.P.) in
March, 1999 land-slides in hilly districts of Uttar Pradesh in September 1998
and cyclone of Gujarat, 1998. State Governments had been advised from time to
time to prepare such action plans. However, much work has not been done in this
field predominantly for want of funds. There is hardly any ongoing scheme which
can take care of expenditure on preparation of such plans. The Committee
recommends inclusion of preparation/iodation of relief manuals and codes and
disaster mitigation/preparedness action plans in the list of approved items
(i) During floods and heavy rains, water is
accumulated in urban areas and certain low, lying rural areas, clearly
categorised, which prevents the movement of inhabitants and sometime
necessitates the shifting of the affected population to the safer areas. The
shifting involves a large amount of funds. Thus, some State Governments have
rightly requested for inclusion of the item “draining off accumulated flood
water in the urban areas”. The Committee recommends for inclusion of this item
in the list of approved items provided the expenditure to be so incurred is
less than expenditure to be incurred on evacuation, camping etc. A higher
expenditure can be considered in difficult areas taking into account the
difficulties to be encountered there for draining off floodwaters.
8.1.8 List of existing and recommended
items
(i) The
Committee recommends that all other existing items with some addition/deletions
as explained in the proceeding paras should remain in the list. A list of
recommended items is placed at Annexure-II.
8.2
Review
of the existing norms of assistance from the National Fund for Calamity Relief
(a)
We
have taken into consideration the existing scale of assistance for various
items norms adopted for similar purpose in various on-going programmes cost
escalation input cost for various crops etc., while considering the revision of
norms for the approved items.
(b)
The
Committee has taken note of the damage caused to cotton crop in some parts of
the State of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Punjab in 1977. the
inputs for such crops are higher in cost and as such need different norms. The
Committee has also considered the cost of production in the areas with assured
irrigation vis-à-vis that in rained areas and feels that there should be
separate norms for the two. We, therefore, recommend separate norms for
irrigated and non-irrigated areas.
(c)
We
recommended that no assistance should be extended for houses, which are built
on areas specified as unsafe as defined through public/gazette notification by
the concerned State/coccal Government for buildings, such as river beds and
other unprotected frequently flooded areas. In other words, the houses, which
are built in areas, identified as unsafe for human dwelling should not be
considered for assistance.
(d)
We
also recommended that no assistance except to the minimum extent necessary so
as to be able to provide immediate relief to the victims should be provided for
repair of damaged infrastructure belonging to State Government. Local bodies
Central Government industrial & commercial establishments as the concerned
Departments of the Government and enterprises should make necessary budget
provision for maintenance of such items in their regular plan for this purpose.
The industrial business establishments should go in for insurance and should
not qualify for any relief.
(e)
List
of Existing and Recommended items
(f)
The
item-wise norms recommended by the Committee are at annexure-I
8.3
Scientific
methods for assessment of damage and requirement of Relief and rehabilitation
(a)
We have
in-depth deliberations on the view/suggestions received from various quarters
on the crucial issue of scientific assessment of damage and requirement of
relief and rehabilitation in case of gratuitous relief for loss of limb, and
recommend that it should be extended only when the disability is more than 40%
and certified by a Government doctor or doctors from the panel approved by the
Government.
(b)
In
case of agriculture input subsidy, if the area is covered under crop insurance
scheme and a farmer has his crop insured, no financial assistance should be
extended to him for the area under the crop for which crop insurance has been
notified.
(c)
The
committee also recommends that satellite imageries/remote sensing report should
be increasingly utilised to determine the extent of damage in various sectors
like:
Type
of construction i.e. kachha/pucca hut;
State Government should
made survey of houses seeking assistance from housing and Civil Engineering
Department.
The survey team from the
State should possibly have a technically trained person.
Necessary training for
house damage assessment should be imparted to the survey team members before
setting of monsoon/cyclone session.
(d)
In
case of damage to infrastructure the Committee recommends that all Central and
State Government Department should set apart adequate budgetary provision
annually for repair/reconstruction of public infrastructure keeping in view the
past experience.
(e)
The
state Directorate of Health Services should ensure stocking of the essential
medicines at various places as per requirements.
(f)
During
its visit a Central team should make efforts to cover as much area as possible.
It should cross check information furnished by the State Government with other
available sources.
8.4
Measures
to ensure that relief assistance reaches the affected people and to prevent
diversion of funds from the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) - The Committee discussed in detail
the issue of monitoring of relief expenditure which was based on suggestions
received from various quarters in order to ensure that relief assistance
actually reaches the needy persons. It was felt that State Government would
have to take effective measures in this regard by way of strict periodical
monitoring through meetings as well as field reports. Department of Agriculture
and Cooperation should also monitor the administration of the CRF. The
Committee ask recommends the following measures in this regard.
(a)
Procedure
laid down by the Ministry of Finance in the scheme of financing relief
expenditure of CRF should be adhered to by the State Governments.
(b)
Accountant
General of the State should be requested to book only those items of
expenditure incurred by the State Government, which are as per approved items
and norms of assistance excepting wherein specific relaxation has been given by
the State Level Committee.
(c)
As far
as possible, relief should be given in kind, if it is not possible, then it
should be given to the beneficiary, preferably through cheque.
(d)
During
disbursement of relief assistance and relief works, the lists of beneficiaries
alongwith amount of assistance given should be displayed at some conspicuous
places. Copies can also be given to the press and the media. This information
may include rate of assistance, category of beneficiaries and the designation
of officer distributing the assistance, place of disbursement etc. Regular briefing of the press and media
should be ensured. Besides, the village headman, panchayat members and
representatives of non-governmental organisations should be associated with
disbursement of relief.
(e)
As far
as possible, the assistance of NGOs should also be taken to get a feed back
from the ground level with regard to disbursement of relief.
(f)
Proper
record of disbursement of assistance should be maintained and checked from time
to time.
(g)
When
some specific complaints are received, State Government may consider to
investigate them to find out the factual position. State Governments may also
consider associating a representative of a leading NGO with such investigation.
(h)
Strict
and time bound follow up action should be taken on the report of the
Comptroller and Auditor General.
(i)
The
payment in case of death should be made immediately. In case of agriculture
input subsidy, the same should be distributed before the harvesting time so
that farmers can purchase inputs for the next crop.
(j)
Ministry
of Finance should consider issue of draft/cheque for extending financial
assistance out of CRF/NFCR, in order to show that the fund is deposited in an
account separately created for this purpose.
(k)
Disbursement
of relief to the affected people should be as prompt as possible if any relief
amount from NFCR is not disbursed within six months, it may be withdrawn.
(l)
The
relief assistance given directly by the NGOs, voluntary organisations, private
citizens/organisations etc. for housing, households etc, should be kept in view
while disbursing relief.
(m)
Coordination
amongst and with NGOs etc. should be ensures.
(n)
Expenses
of the kind of TA & DA may be separately accounted for.
8.5
Guidelines
for memoranda to be submitted to the 11th Finance Commission for
enhancing the corpus of funds keeping in view the experience of last three
years - The
committee is of the view that the following items/issues may be included in the
memoranda to be submitted to the 11th Finance Commission.
(a)
The
types of calamities, which could be considered as natural calamities, should be
clearly defined. In case fire incidents are included in the category of natural
calamities, the type of fire incidents occurring due to wild fire/forest fire
should be included in the category of natural calamities. The Committee is of
the view that only calamities such as drought, floods, heavy rains, cyclones,
earthquakes, landslides, avalanches, snow storms, hailstorms, lightening and
pest attacks including rat menace resulting from sustained adverse weather
conditions, should be included in the category of natural calamities. Heat/cold
wave, epidemics etc. should not be categorised as natural calamities.
(b)
There
is need to have a definition of a calamity of rare severity for extending
financial assistance from NFCR. The committee is of the view that a single
event of a natural calamity should be strictly considered for relief assistance
instead of a combination of more than one natural calamity of different types
occurring at different times. That is to say that normally there should not be
any bunching of different calamities.
(c)
The
committee observed that some of the States have pointed out that the quantum of
CRF allocated to them is insufficient and should be increased. The committee
has considered the procedure followed by the Ninth and Tenth Finance Commission
i.e. basing the quantum of CRF on the average of ceiling of expenditure
approved during the last ten years and is of the view that apart from the
average ceilings of expenditure the ability of the State to cope with a natural
calamity should also be given proper consideration while approving the quantum
of CRF for a State.
(d)
All
State Governments contribute to the National Fund for Calamity Relief in the
spirit of national integration. The committee recommends that even when the
corpus under NFCR allocated, if any, by the 11th Finance Commission
is exhausted the State shall contribute to NFCR on the same principle, if the
fund is augmented later on.
(e)
Generally,
lifeline infrastructure, such as roads, telecommunications, power, hospitals,
etc. are adversely affected in the wake of cyclones, floods, heavy rains and
earthquakes. State Governments and concerned Ministries/Departments of
Government of India should set apart adequate budget provisions for repair and
immediate restoration works for such infrastructure. Public Sector Units should
also keep necessary provisions for this purpose and should not be assisted from
relief funds. In a natural calamity of the magnitude of Orissa Super Cyclone of
October, 1999, funds can be provided by the Planning Commission to be adjusted
against the plan funds allocated to States.
(f)
The
Planning Commissioner may keep in view the transportation cost of relief
operations in hilly terrains while recommending allocation under CRF to these
State. Degree of vulnerability of State should also be one of the factors for
deciding quantum of CRF.
(g)
Development
plan should have inbuilt component on environmental and natural hazard
proneness concept. Planning Commission should ensure that at least 5 to
10% allocation is earmarked for
disaster preparedness and mitigation in all related plan schemes.
(h)
The
assistance from they NFCR should be extended only after following the set
procedure. In no case adhoc releases from this fund should be allowed.
In order to have a
proper assessment of the situation, the Central Tem should be deputed only
after receipt of a detailed and final memorandum. State Governments should not
request deputation of team hurriedly based on interim memoranda, which are
reviewed subsequently sometimes more than once.