About National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF):

• National Disaster Response Fund is defined in Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 (DM Act) as a fund managed by the Central Government for meeting the expenses for emergency response, relief and rehabilitation due to any threatening disaster situation or disaster.
• It is constituted to supplement the funds of the State Disaster Response Funds (SDRF) of the states to facilitate immediate relief in case of calamities of a severe nature.

Definition of a disaster:

The DM Act defines “disaster” to mean a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence in any area, arising from natural or man-made causes, or by accident or negligence which results in substantial loss of life or human suffering or damage to, and destruction of, property, or damage to, or degradation of, environment, and is of such a nature or magnitude as to be beyond the coping capacity of the community of the affected area.

Financing of the fund

• The NDRF is entirely funded by the Centre through the imposition of National Calamity Contingency Duty (NCCD) on specified goods such as Cigarettes and Crude Petroleum. NDRF is maintained by the Central Government under the Public Account of India.
• The requirement for funds beyond what is available under the NDRF is met through general budgetary resources.
• Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) audits the accounts of NDRF.

Funding pattern

• The Central Government contributes 75% of SDRF allocation for general category States/UTs and 90% for special category States/UTs (NE States, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir).
• The Government of India approves the annual allocation to SDRF based on the recommendations of successive Finance Commission.

Utilisation of funds

• NDRF amount can be spent only towards meeting the expenses for emergency response, relief and rehabilitation.
• For projects exclusively for the purpose of mitigation, i.e, measures aimed at reducing the risk, impact or effect of a disaster or threatening disaster situation a separate fund called National Disaster Mitigation Fund has to be constituted.

Why in News?

The Central Government has allowed contributions from any person or institution to the National Disaster Response Fund.