The Centre has clarified that there “is no provision to declare the Puttingal temple tragedy in Kollam as natural calamity and extend financial assistance to Kerala.”
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, in response to a matter raised by Mullappally Ramachandran, MP, in the Lok Sabha, the Minister said that “under existing schemes of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), there is no provision to provide any special financial assistance for the fireworks explosion tragedy-affected State.”
Disaster had struck the Puttingal Devi temple at Paravur, south of Kollam around 3.30 a.m. on March 10 when firecrackers meant to be burst to mark the conclusion of the Meena Bharani festival exploded, killing over 100 persons, maiming several hundreds.
Mr. Rijiju said that fire was one of the eligible natural calamities for providing assistance from the State Disaster Response Fund.
“However, in this case, the fireworks explosion tragedy occurred perhaps due to human error and not due to natural cause, which is a matter of legal, ceremonial investigation by the State concerned. Subsequently, the State government has appointed a Commission of Inquiry to know the circumstances and causes that led to the fireworks explosion tragedy.”
Guidelines
With regard to declaring a disaster as a natural calamity, it is mentioned that the existing guidelines of the SDRF and NDRF do not contemplate declaring of a disaster as a national calamity.
However, in the event of a disaster of a "severe nature" financial assistance towards the notified natural disasters is met from the SDRF, which is further supplemented from the NDRF in accordance with the established procedure, he pointed out.
As primary responsibility of disaster management rests with States, under the given circumstances, the State government is required to take necessary relief and rehabilitation measures from its resources or plan as per their relief codes or manual or land policy, according to magnitude of the ground situation through concerned administrative authority, Mr. Rijiju said.
