Heatwaves not listed as natural disaster as finance panel rejected request in 2020 report: Centre
India recorded 40,000 suspected cases of heatstroke and over 100 heat-related deaths during one of its hottest and longest heatwaves this year.
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The Centre on Wednesday said that heatwaves are not considered a natural calamity under the notified list of disasters eligible for financial assistance as the 15th Finance Commission did not find merit to expand the scope of the current list.
This comes in the background of the India Meteorological Department stating earlier this month that the country had witnessed 536 heatwave days this summer, which was the highest in 14 years.
India recorded 40,000 suspected cases of heatstroke and over 100 heat-related deaths during one of its hottest and longest heatwaves this year.
On Wednesday, Jitendra Singh, Union minister of state for ministry earth sciences, while responding to a question by Congress MP Sukhdeo Bhagat in the Lok Sabha, said that the current list included 12 disasters eligible for National Disaster Response Fund and State Disaster Response Fund assistance.
These are cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, fires, floods, tsunamis, hailstorms, landslides, avalanches, cloud bursts, pest attacks, and frost and cold wave.
“The issue of inclusion of more calamities in the existing notified list of calamities was considered by the 15th Finance Commission,” Singh said in his reply.
However, the commission had observed that the current list covered the needs of the states to a “large extent” and “thus did not find much merit in the request to expand its scope”,...
