Kerala's dig at Centre in HC: Big biz loans written off, why not Wayanad landslide-hit families' debts

The Union Government has written off high-value loans of businesses, but the request to write off loans of landslide-affected families in Wayanad is still pending, Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) said in a statement filed in the High Court on Friday. The contention, delivered in an apparently combative tone, comes as a response to the Centre, which has told the High Court that Kerala did not comply with mandatory norms while seeking relief assistance.

"In the exercise of Section 13 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) may consider writing off personal loans, motor vehicle loans, housing loans, and other loans of the affected families. It may be noted that many media reports show that the Government of India has benevolently written off high-value loans of businesses. The quantum of loan of the disaster-affected community at Meppadi will be a minuscule amount compared to the values that are often seen reported in media," reads the KSDMA statement.

The Centre has submitted in the HC that Kerala has Rs 782.99 crore in the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for the management of necessary relief measures in the affected areas. In the aftermath of the instant landslide/flash flood incident in Wayanad, the Central Government has released both the instalments of its share of SDRF in advance, amounting to Rs 145.60 crore each on July 31 and October 1, respectively, it said.

Kerala doesn't dispute this, according to the statement. The contention is on the matter that Kerala has yet to receive any specific immediate additional relief assistance for a calamity that resulted in the death of 251 people and 47 still missing, KSDMA pointed out.

This is followed by three specific requests Kerala had raised - notifying the Meppadi landslide as a disaster of a 'severe nature', writing off loans of affected families and providing immediate additional relief assistance. It is with regard to request on loans that the KSDMA has quoted media reports to take a swipe at the Central government. In 2022, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had told the Lok Sabha that loans amounting to Rs 10.09 lakh crore were written off by scheduled commercial banks in five financial years. The Opposition parties had slammed the Centre for writing off bad loans.

The Centre had also cited that in case of severe disasters and for additional financial assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), the state governments have to conduct a Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA). In the case of Kerala, PDNA along with detailed memorandum is still awaited, the Centre had told the HC.

KSDMA has admitted that PDNA is not ready but has given a reason. "The state is finalising the PDNA which is a very recent introduction to the norms of assistance. In fact, the guidelines itself came into force on August 14, only after the occurrence of the Meppadi landslide. Therefore, the state had to train its team to prepare PDNA and the report," KSDMA said in the statement.

Following the 2018 floods, Kerala commissioned the PDNA. Tom Jose, then Chief Secretary, in his foreword of the document, said that PDNA was initiated on September 18, 2018, and was jointly developed by the European Union, World Bank and the United Nations system. The PDNA for the floods and landslides was made possible due to the collaborative efforts of the Government of Kerala, the KSDMA, the UN agencies, the European Commission, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), the document notes.