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Government sources on Saturday cited a 2013 reply in Parliament by a Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government minister to emphasise that no concept of "national disaster" exists under the rules of the central government.
The clarification came amid a demand, including from Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, that the landslide tragedy in Kerala's Wayanad be declared a national disaster.
The then minister of state for home and Congress MP from Kerala Mullappally Ramachandran had told the Lok Sabha in 2013 in a reply to a question that "there is no provision to declare a natural disaster as a national disaster", the sources noted.
The reply stated that the government of India adjudges a calamity of severe nature on case-to-case basis, taking into account its intensity and magnitude, level of relief assistance, capacity of the state government to tackle the problem, and alternatives and flexibility available within the plan to provide succour and relief etc.
The priority is immediate relief and response assistance in the context of a natural calamity. As such there is no fixed prescribed norms, he had said.
However, for calamity of a "severe nature", additional assistance is also considered from the National Disaster Response Fund after following the established procedure, the reply stated.
He had also said the state government concerned is primarily responsible for undertaking necessary rescue and relief measures in the wake of natural disasters.
Ramachandran was replying to the question on whether the government has fixed any norms for declaring a calamity of severe nature striking the country as a "national calamity".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Wayanad on Saturday.
Gandhi, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad in 2019 and 2024, had urged the Centre to declare the tragedy a national disaster.