Govt: About 2,803 people lost lives during 2024-25 in hydro-meteorological disasters
New Delhi: Over 2,800 people lost their lives and 3.47 lakh houses were damaged in hydro-meteorological disasters during 2024-25, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
Madhya Pradesh reported the highest number of deaths in such natural calamities at 373, followed by Himachal Pradesh at 358 and Gujarat at 230, showed data provided by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai in response to a question.
According to the data, 2,803 people died, 3.47 lakh houses were damaged, 58,835 cattle were lost and 10.23 lakh hectare crop area was affected due to the disasters in 2024-25.
Rai said Rs 10,728 crore has been released from the State Disaster Relief Fund in the first instalment while Rs 4,150 crore was released in the second instalment. From the National Disaster Relief Fund, Rs 4,043 crore was released, he said.
“As per the National Policy on Disaster Management (NPDM), the primary responsibility for disaster management, including disbursal of relief assistance on ground level, rests with the state governments concerned.
“The state governments undertake relief measures in the wake of natural calamities, from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) already placed at their disposal, in accordance with Government of India approved items and norms,” the minister said in the reply.
He said the Central government supplements the efforts of the state governments and provides requisite logistics and financial support.
“Additional financial assistance is provided from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), as per laid down procedure, in case of disaster of ‘severe nature’, which includes an assessment based on the visit of an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT),” he said.
The minister said that as on November 27, 2024, a total of 12 IMCTs have been constituted for various states for on-the-spot assessment of damage caused due to natural calamities during 2024.
In response to a separate question seeking to know if the government has conducted an assessment of the damage caused by Karnataka floods, particularly in Haveri and Gadag districts, Rai said no memorandum for seeking additional assistance has been received from the state government on it.
“In order to provide financial support to the affected people, the State Government of Karnataka has been allocated Rs 976.00 crore (Rs 732 crore as central share + Rs 244 crore as state share) for the year 2024-25 under the SDRF, out of which the first instalment of Rs 366.00 crore of central share has been released from SDRF during 2024-25,” he said.
Rai said Rs 3,454.22 crore has also been released from NDRF to Karnataka during 2024-25, for drought relief assistance of 2023. “As such, sufficient funds are available in their SDRF account for management of notified disasters, including floods,” he said.
He said the centre had implemented the Flood Management Programme (FMP) to provide central assistance to states for works related to flood control, anti-erosion, drainage development, anti-sea erosion, etc which subsequently continued as a component of “Flood Management and Border
Areas Programme” (FMBAP) for the period from 2017-18 to 2020-21 and was further extended up to 2026 with limited outlay.
