Govt wants better coordination between ministries during natural calamities

Asks ministries and departments that all proposals for providing relief in times of natural disasters should flow from a single source

To stop the practice of ministries unilaterally declaring relief packages in times of natural calamities such as droughts and floods, the government has asked ministries and departments that all proposals for providing relief in times of natural disasters should flow from a single source. Besides, there should be better coordination between departments, the government said in a recent directive to ministries.

According to officials in the know, the directive was issued few days ago after it was seen that in the past six months, some departments had unilaterally announced relief package, leading to problem in their implementation and absence of coordination.

"This is particularly important in the case of drought and floods, where a more coordinated approach would have helped," said a senior official.

He added this is also vital as relief at times of natural calamities is usually not one dimensional and involves the participation of many different agencies and bodies.

Since the Narendra Modi government took charge, the country has been hit by three major natural disasters - the drought in Haryana and Maharashtra, floods and cyclone in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and the floods in Jammu & Kashmir.

In the first case, the Centre had sent a team of officials to assess the impact of low rains after the state government declared itself "drought-hit" and demanded a relief package of Rs 4,500 crore.

For Maharashtra, the Centre is planning to send a team of officials. In the case of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, Prime Minister Modi announced a series of relief measures to provide support to the victims and also help in rehabilitation.

For Kashmir, the government had announced an initial relief package of Rs 1,000 crore, while other ministries also chipped in with their proposals. For example, the food department announced they would provide advance grains to the state government for distribution through the public distribution system.

Usually, relief for natural calamities is provided through the National Disaster Response Fund, created in the finance ministry in 2010, and similar funds created in the states. The Centre supplements the state from this fund only when the latter's corpus is found to be inadequate.

The fund is maintained through budgetary allocation.