Odisha Govt adds 8 Natural Disasters to SDRF

The Odisha Government has added eight disasters to the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) so that maximum people can reap benefits under the scheme. The disasters that have been Deed to SDRF, are – Lightning, Whirlwind, Heavy Rains, Tornado, Snake Bite, Boat Capsize, Drowning and Heat Wave. The decision was taken on the basis of recommendations from the 14th Finance Commission.

Deaths from hailstorm, lightning, snake bite and drowning are very common in Odisha. Similarly, boat capsize, drowning and heave wave also cause a lot of casualties every year. People, who died from these disasters, used to get very little compensation from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

Now, with their inclusion into the SDRF, the victims’ families will get adequate compensation.The State Executive Committee meeting on disaster management chaired by Chief Secretary G.C. Pati yesterday approved the inclusion of these disasters into SDRF with immediate effect.

The state government had demanded from the Centre the inclusion of heat wave and lightning under SDRF as maximum deaths occurred due to them. The Chief Secretary has also asked all District Collectors to prepare the Disaster Management Plan 2015-16 by May 2015.

The Odisha State Disaster Management Authority has been declared the nodal agency for capacity building to face such disasters.

A sum of Rs.4,130 crore has been proposed as the SDRF corpus during 2015-2020 as per the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission against which the corpus for 2015-16 will be around Rs.747 crore, including 75 percent central and 25 percent state share, said the statement.