Finance panel weighs need to reshape disaster management act\, laws to fight pandemics

NEW DELHI: In a bid to ensure states are better prepared to face health emergencies, the Fifteenth Finance Commission has started looking into the scope and need for expanding the ambit of the country's laws related to disaster management. It is studying the existing laws to see if they can cover pandemic situations more comprehensively, while also making it clear that if new legislation is required, it is up to the home ministry to come up with it and Parliament to take a decision.

Commission chairman NK Singh held a virtual meeting with officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Thursday. The objective was to seek feedback on the adequacy of the recommendations on disaster risk management made in the commission's report for 2020-21, and get suggestions for the next five years with a focus on Covid-19, officials said.

In an interim report submitted in February 2020, the commission had looked at how states could ensure that sufficient funds were kept aside for rehabilitation, mitigation and capacity-building, rather than allocating money for just immediate relief.

The commission had recommended allocation of Rs. 28,983 cr to the State Disaster Response Fund, out of which the Centre recently released Rs. 11,092 cr as its share of first instalment for 2020-21. The fund, the Centre had said, could be used for cluster containment, quarantine and purchase of personal protective equipment for frontline workers in the fight against Covid-19. The commission is now finalising its recommendations for its report for the next five years, to be submitted before October.

‘We have started collecting views and getting information on constitutional positions … The DM Act came only in 2005, but it is also the Epidemics Act that enables a lot of action … Our 2021 report that came during the pre-Covid time looked at disaster management comprehensively, with specific importance to mitigation and capacity building, and windows for accessing resources. The next report, for certainly, will cover these aspects more holistically,’ a senior official in the commission said.

Experts have started demanding that even as the Covid-19 situation was being handled, Parliament must review the disaster management laws to create a comprehensive legal regime to effectively tackle any future public health crisis.

Jacob P Alex, an advocate in the Kerala HC who has worked in the area of disaster management during the floods and the Nipah virus outbreak in the state, said: “Several countries such as the UK and Singapore have passed Covid-related Acts, which is not needed here. We need broad laws, with specialised, updated guidelines,” Alex said.

Many experts in the past few months have talked about how India lacked specific legislation to deal with pandemics such as Covid-19. While the NDMA 2005 and Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 had been invoked to deal with the present situation, both Acts lack specific provision in dealing with pandemics, they have pointed out.