Government opens up NDRF for individual donations

The Central govt. has recently applied a remaining provision in the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to allow any person or institution to contribute to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for disaster management.  It will lay out the modalities for receipt of contributions/ grants from any person or institution for disaster management in the NDRF as per Section 46(1) (b) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The section pertaining to NDRF says “any grants that may be made by any person or institution for disaster management.”

Background

• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had invoked the Disaster Management Act, 2005 for the first time in March this year in the wake of COVID-19.
• The COVID-19 pandemic was notified as a “disaster,” paving the way for the States to utilise the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for treatment of patients and other logistics.
• These include quarantine centres, setting up laboratories, among other things.
• The other notified disasters under the act are cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloudburst, pest attack, frost and cold waves.

Supplementing State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF)

• As per Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, the “NDRF supplements the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) in case of a disaster of severe nature, provided adequate funds are not available in the SDRF.”
• The States also have to submit utilisation certificates, pending which no future allocation is made.
• The fund is the primary available with State governments to meet the expenses of relief operations of an immediate nature, for a range of specified disasters.

Contribution by the central government

• The Centre contributes 75% of the SDRF allocation for general category States and Union Territories, whereas 90% for special category States (northeast States, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir).

PM-CARES Fund

• Recently the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has clarified that the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) is not a public authority under the ambit of the Right to Act (RTI), 2005.

About PM-CARES Fund

• It was set up as a public charitable trust with the trust deed registered on March 27, 2020.
• It can avail donations from the foreign contribution and donations to fund can also avail a 100% tax exemption.
• PM-CARES are different from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).

Composition:

• Prime Minister as chairperson
• Defence Minister, Home Minister, Finance Minister
• Three trustees nominated by the Prime Minister “who shall be eminent persons in the field of research, health, science, social work, law, public administration and philanthropy”.

UPSC