Building resilience

Dr (Prof.) Dhiraj Bora

Debajyoti Goswami

(The writers can be reached at Assam Science and

Technology University, Email: fao@astu.ac.in)

Post-disaster relief and rehabilitation play critical role in rebuilding of lives of lakhs of people affected by ravaging annual floods and erosion in Assam. The quantum of allocations for States recommended by the 15th Finance Commission under the State Disaster Risk Management Fund (SDRMF) for 2020-21 reflects poor utilization of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) by the State Government in past seven years from 2011-12 to 2017-18. The commission recommended allocation of Rs. 28,983 crore for the States in 2020-21 under SDRMF. The central share for Assam is Rs. 772 crore. The state share for SDRMF for the current financial year is Rs 86 crore under the funding pattern of 90:10 for the special category states. The Central government has already released the first installment of Rs. 386 crore to the State. Maharashtra accounts for the highest central share of SDRMF allocation of Rs 3222 crore. Other States with central share allocations more than Rs. 1000 crore are Uttar Pradesh- Rs. 1933 crore, Madhya Pradesh-Rs. 1820 crore, Rajasthan- Rs. 1481 crore, Bihar Rs 1416 crore, Gujarat- Rs. 1324 crore, West Bengal- Rs 1011 crore and Tamil Nadu – Rs. 1020 crore. Funding pattern for these non-special category states is 75:25. Clearly, as compared to the scale of devastation in annual floods and erosion, SDRMF fund allocated to Assam is much less. The 15th Finance Commission while adopting the methodology of allocating resources to States for disaster management retains the importance assigned to the expenditures incurred by States on disaster management. In addition, it introduces weightage for area, population and risk profile of individual States to arrive at the final allocation for each State. The commission in its report for the year 2020-21 states that for calculating the figures related to expenditure on disaster relief, the States' expenditure booked under major head for the past seven years (2011-12 to 2017-18) has been considered. It assigned 70 per cent weightage to expenditure, that is, 70 per cent of average expenditure for each state has been taken for further calculation. For the year 2017-18 the expenditure reported by the State Government was Rs. 2240 crore and the SDRF amount left unspent by the State government at the end of the financial year was Rs. 1056.97 crore. The unspent amount is the opening balance in the SDRF. The opening balance for 2017-18 was 2790.65 crore. The unspent SDRF balance for the current financial year is Rs. 356 crore as on April 1 when lakhs of people struggle every year to rebuild their lives after the flood and erosion leave a trail of devastation across the state. The Finance Commission has underlined the need for a holistic approach by earmarking financial allocations for preparedness, response, mitigation, recovery, and reconstruction. The commission notes that the present disaster management system lays too much emphasis on response rather than preparedness and mitigation. It, therefore, recommended setting up of mitigation fund both at national and state levels in the form of National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) and State Disaster Mitigation Funds (SDMF) in accordance with the Disaster Management, Act. The Commission recommended the creation of funds for disaster mitigation along with disaster response, which are now together called as National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) at national level and SDRMF at state level. These mitigation funds are to be used for those local level and community-based interventions which reduce the risks and promote environment-friendly settlements and livelihood practices. However, large-scale mitigation interventions such as construction of flood embankments are not to be taken up from the mitigation fund. Within the SDRMF, the share of SDRF is 80 per cent and the share of SDMF is 20 per cent. The funding windows of SDRF and SDMF are not inter-changeable. However, within the SDRF allocation of 80 per cent, there would be three sub-allocations. They are Response and Relief (40 per cent), Recovery and Reconstruction (30 per cent) and Preparedness and Capacity-building (10 per cent). The Commission recommended that there could be flexibility for re-allocation within the three sub-windows of the respective funds and such re-allocation shall not exceed 10 per cent of the allotted amount of that sub-window for 2020-21. An additional allocation of 11 per cent has been provided for ten North-Eastern and Himalayan States "to pay greater attention to infrastructure resilience in these States in view of the continuous disruption of their transport network by flash floods, landslides and other mountain hazards." Assam Government will be required to enhance its capacity to fully utilize SDRF fund as well as the SDMF fund in order to get higher allocations for adequate relief and rehabilitation measures for flood-hit people and also to improve flood resilience of the affected communities by undertaking timely mitigation measures. It will require meticulous planning, maintaining financial discipline, strict monitoring and timely evaluation of disaster response works.