Mainstream WeeklyMany lofty principles are pronounced on how disaster risk management is holistic, not confined to response alone, has several activities before, during and after a disaster strikes and so on. The report of the 16th Finance Commission [1] with reference to disaster management, recommends allocations to the tune of Rs 2.83 lakh crore for this sector for the period between 2026-27 and 2030-31. The following points are worth noting:
(i) It recommends enhancement of funds at the State level from Rs 1.60 lakh crore recommended by the 15th FC for the last five years [2] to Rs 2.04 lakh crore. Similarly, the funds at the national level have increased from Rs 68,500 crore to Rs. 79,400 crore. While the releases from the Centre during the 15th FC award period were considered, final expenditure has not been taken into consideration. This is an important gap, as many a time fund is released, but not spent at the end point.
(ii) The 15th FC had recommended four funding windows at the State level for preparedness & capacity building ( Rs. 16,015 Cr), mitigation (Rs 32.030 Cr), response & relief (Rs 64,061 Cr) and recovery & reconstruction (Rs 48,046 Cr). Similarly, at the national level, corresponding to these four funding windows, Rs 6,846 Cr, Rs 13,693 Cr, Rs 27,385 Cr and Rs 20,539 Cr respectively were recommended. The expenditure figures and physical details of important projects for each of these eight funding windows would have been highly instructive. But they were not discussed in Para 11.36 to 11.44 of the report that dealt with