A high-level committee under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Wednesday approved central assistance of Rs 2,006.40 crore to Himachal Pradesh for recovery and reconstruction activities in the aftermath of flood, landslides, and the cloudburst incident in 2023.
A statement issued by the central government said, “Out of this (Rs 2,006.40 crore), Rs 1,504.80 crore will be the central share from Recovery and Reconstruction Funding Window under National Disaster Response Fund. Earlier, on December 12, 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs had approved additional financial assistance of Rs 633.73 crore from the NDRF for Himachal Pradesh…”
The committee, comprising the Finance Minister, Agriculture Minister and NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman, considered the proposal for financial assistance to the state through the Recovery and Reconstruction funding window under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
The state government under Chief Minister has long been blaming the Centre for not releasing the Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA) funds of approximately Rs 9,000 crore. The issue has been a topic of heated discussions between the ruling party MLAs and the Opposition legislators during various Assembly sessions.
Senior BJP leaders, including national president J P Nadda and former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, hailed the central government on Wednesday for approving the assistance.
The Centre had earlier approved Rs 1,658.17 crore for Uttarakhand in the aftermath of the land subsidence in Joshimath, and Rs 555.27 crore for Sikkim in the wake of the glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in 2023.
Further it also approved projects with an overall financial outlay of Rs 7,253.51 crore for mitigating the risks pertaining to a number of hazards in the areas of urban floods (Rs 3,075.65 crore), landslides (Rs 1,000 crore), GLOF (Rs 150 crore), forest fire (Rs 818.92 crore), lightning (Rs 186.78 crore) and drought (Rs 2,022.16 crore).
This additional assistance is over and above the funds released by the Centre to the states under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) which is already placed at the disposal of the states. During the 2024-25 financial year, the Centre released Rs 20,264.40 crore to 28 states under the SDRF and Rs 5,160.76 crore under the NDRF to 19 states. Additionally, Rs 4,984.25 crore was released from the State Disaster Mitigation Fund (SDMF) to 19 states and Rs 719.72 crore from the National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) to eight states.
