Frame guidelines for disaster affected people: SC to states

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today directed the Chief Secretaries of states to frame and comply with guidelines under the Disaster Management Act on the issue of minimum standard of relief to affected persons.

A bench comprising justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh directed the states to file their response in one week on what steps they have taken so far under the Act.

"We require Chief Secretaries of the states to frame and comply with letter of National Disaster Management Authority recommending guidelines to be framed for the minimum standard relief to be provided to the affected persons. States are required to submit the response in one week as what steps they have taken so far," the bench said.

The court's direction came after it was informed that NDMA has written a letter to all the states asking them to frame the guidelines.

The bench took the letter of NDMA on record and posted the matter for further hearing on April 4.

The plea filed by advoocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal have sought formulation of national plan for disaster management and implementation of the Act.

Referring to provisions of the Disaster Management Act, the plea had said that they cast a duty on the Centre to draw a national plan for disaster management and to provide minimum standards of relief to those affected by the disaster.

Quoting a CAG report on the implementation of the Disaster Management Act, the plea said, "Even after expiry of nine years of the Disaster Management Act, the Union of India has not formulated the National Plan for Disaster Management."

"It is need of the hour that the Union of India must formulate a concrete plan for mitigation of agriculture disaster as well as for the relief and rehabilitation of the farmers of the world's largest democracy," it said.

The apex court had earlier issued notices to Uttarakhand and six other states on the PIL that had alleged that they failed in implementing Disaster Management Act in order to handle natural catastrophe.

The six other states whose reply was sought include are Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Gujarat.