The Kerala High Court, on Wednesday, inquired if the Centre could exclude around Rs 120 crore from the Rs 132 crore demanded as airlift charges for rescue operations carried out by the IAF in the state since 2006.
Considering the pressing need for assistance in landslide-hit Wayanad, a division bench comprising Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Easwaran S suggested that freeing up Rs 120 crore would allow the funds to be redirected for the rehabilitation of landslide victims in Wayanad.
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The court urged the Centre to consider temporarily releasing the Rs 120 crore and relaxing the NDRF/SDRF guidelines to enable the funds to be used for rehabilitating the landslide victims.
The state government had informed the court that of a total of Rs 782.99 crore available in State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), around Rs 120 crore are to be paid to the Centre towards arrears of airlifting services provided in 2006, 2016, 2017, and Rs 60 crore towards other pending bills. In addition, the state said there are other commitments, leaving only Rs 61.03 crore available for use.
The court orally said there was no pressing emergency to collect the outstanding amount from the state at this point of time. Regarding the reminder that was sent in October 2024 for paying the debts, the court said, “Now, this is the letter which was sent from New Delhi on 22nd of October settlement of outstanding airlift charges. Why would Delhi send settlement of airlift charges pertaining to 2016, 2017 magically in October 2024. When in 6 six years, it was not doing..2016, 2017 also magically why would they send a reminder on 22nd of October 2024.
The reminder came because the landslide happened in July and after that the requests started coming. So when somebody makes a request, you say you are already in debt. This is psychology. What we want to do here is to remove all these psychological things.”
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has sent a `132.62 crore bill to the state government for the airlifting and rescue activities conducted by the force during the landslide. In a letter to the Kerala chief secretary, a joint secretary in the rank of Air Vice Marshal in the Ministry of Defence’s Department of Military Affairs had raised the demand for settlement of outstanding airlift charges
A letter dated October 22, 2024 regarding settlement of outstanding airlift charges was received by the Kerala chief secretary reportedly on November 2, 2024 .It contains tabulated data of the bills “not cleared” by the Kerala government for the rescue work carried out by the Indian Air Force (IAF).
During hearing of the case, the Central government counsel said that its permission was required to temporarily free up the Rs 120 crore and that the Union government has to relax the NDRF/SDRF norms to enable utilisation of the Rs 180 crore for rehabilitation. The bench, then, asked the Centre to consider granting the relaxations to enable the state government to utilise the amounts.
The bench then asked the Centre to consider relaxing SDRF/ NDRF norms so that the state government is ‘freed up’ of Rs.180 crore outstanding debt and can put the same for use in Wayanad rehabilitation works. The court also asked the Centre to take a stand on this by January 10, 2025.
