The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, on Wednesday released an amount of Rs 7,532 crore to 22 state governments for their respective State Disaster Response Funds (SDRF).

The amount has been released as per recommendations of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Centre has taken note of heavy rains this year and relaxed guidelines to release the amounts immediately, without waiting for utilisation certificates of the funds provided in the last financial year.

The State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) is the primary fund available with State Governments for response to notified disasters. The Central Government contributes 75 per cent to the SDRF in “general” States and 90 per cent in the North-East and Himalayan States.

The annual Central contribution is released in two equal instalments as per the recommendation of the Finance Commission. As per the guidelines, the funds are released on receipt of Utilisation Certificate of the amount released in the earlier instalment and receipt of a report from the State Government on the activities undertaken from SDRF.  However, in view of the urgency, these requirements were waived while releasing the funds this time.

The SDRF is to be used only for meeting the expenditure for providing immediate relief to the victims of notified calamities like cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloud burst, pest attack and frost & cold wave.

Allocation of SDRF funds to the States is based on multiple factors like past expenditure, area, population, and disaster risk index.  These factors reflect the States’ institutional capacity, risk exposure, and hazard and vulnerability.

Based on the 15^th Finance Commission recommendations, the Central Government has allocated Rs 1,28,122.40 crore for SDRF for years 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Out of this amount, the Central Government’s share is Rs 98,080.80 crore.  The Central Government has already released Rs 34,140 crore before the current release.

With the current release, the total amount of Central share of SDRF released to the State Governments so far has gone up to Rs 42,366 crore.

The State-wise allocations are: Andhra Pradesh Rs 493.60 cr, Arunachal Pradesh Rs 110.40 cr, Assam Rs 340.40 cr, Bihar Rs 624.40 cr, Chhattishgarh Rs 181.60 cr, Goa Rs 4.80 cr, Gujarat Rs 584.00 cr, Haryana Rs 216.80 cr, Himachal Pradesh Rs 180.40 cr, Karnataka Rs 348.80 cr, Kerala Rs 138.80 cr, Maharashtra Rs 1420.80 cr, Manipur Rs 18.80 cr, Meghalaya Rs 27.20 cr, Mizoram Rs 20.80 cr, Odisha Rs 707.60 cr, Punjab Rs 218.40 cr, Tamil Nadu Rs 450.00 cr, Telangana Rs 188.80 cr, Tripura Rs 30.40 cr, Uttar Pradesh Rs 812.00 cr, and Uttrakhand Rs 413.20 cr.