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NEW DELHI: Despite Union home ministry’s repeated reminders, Telangana has refused to set up a state disaster mitigation fund (SDMF), the only state yet to do it, which could have helped it to avail central funds for disaster mitigation, including modernising and expansion of its fire services and flood mitigation projects among others.All chief secretaries of states, including Telangana, were issued directive as far back as Jan 2022 to set up SDMF in view of added emphasis on reducing all future disaster deaths, whether caused by natural calamities or man-made disasters.On June 30, in one of the worst industrial disasters in the state, at least 36 people were confirmed dead with several more still missing in an explosion at a company in Pashamylaram.
The National Disaster Management Authority has from time to time issued detailed guidelines on chemical disaster management and proactive measures to be adopted by states to avoid such accidents.According to sources, in the past four years the Centre has released ₹20,555 crore mitigation funds to SDMFs of states and UTs for various projects related to reducing disaster risk, both loss of lives and properties.There is still over ₹17,000 crore of the mitigation fund available for states, depending on their utilisation and demand, out of ₹37,827 crore allocated for a five-year period from 2020-21 to 2025-26 as per the recommendation of the 15thFinance Commission.
The 15th Finance Commission had recommended allocation of over ₹32,000 crore for SDMF, out of a total of ₹1.6 lakh crore of the state disaster risk management fund, to be used during 2020-21 to 2025-26.Though the Telangana police have filed an FIR in the factory blast on Monday, the incident may also trigger investigation under the Disaster Management Act, to ascertain if adequate mitigation safeguards were taken.
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