Gujarat is kept out of disaster committee

Gujarat is kept out of disaster committee
NEERJA CHOWDHURY

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 14: The high-powered all-party committee on disaster management constituted by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, on an Opposition proposal last week, has run into rough weather even before its first meeting.

Its first term of reference that it would look after the rescue, relief and rehabilitation work in Gujarat has raised many eyebrows. This is being seen as an encroachment on the powers of the Gujarat government. National Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, who has been appointed vice-president of the committee, which is to be chaired by the Prime Minister himself, met Vajpayee yesterday to draw his attention to this. Pawar has reportedly been asked to take charge because of his experience of rehabilitation work in quake-hit Latur. Sonia had mooted the proposal for a permanent disaster management committee but Pawar was asked to head it.

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The second glaring fact is the exclusion of Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and his government from the panel. Since the Gujarat government is the nodal agency for relief and rehabilitation, this is indeed strange.

With 33 members, the committee is quite heavy. It has seven Union cabinet ministers, 23 presidents of national and state parties and two bureaucrats. It is now being seen as a mere ploy to deflect criticism of the governments’ handling of the situation in Gujarat.

The Prime Minister is now learnt to have agreed to redraw the terms of reference and agreed to call a meeting of the committee here on February 18, a day before the Budget session of Parliament begins.

The committee will also suggest administrative and legislative measures to make disaster management more effective and define the parameters of what constitutes a ‘national calamity’. There is no provision for such a thing in Governments rules. The 11th Finance Commission had only provided for a special surcharge in the event of a calamity of rare severity.

The cabinet ministers on the committee are: L.K.Advani, George Fernandes, Yashwant Sinha, Nitish Kumar, Kanshiram Rana and Jagmohan. K.C.Pant, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, is also a member. The only non-politicians in the committee are the Cabinet Secretary, who will be Member Secretary, and Principal Scientific Advisor A.P.J.Abdul Kalam.

Interestingly, AIADMK supremo J.Jayalalitha, who pulled down the Vajpayee ministry in 1999, is a prominent member. The others include Kanshi Ram (BSP), Bangaru Laxman(BJP), Laloo Yadav (RJD), Sharad Yadav (JD-U)), Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP), Bal Thackeray (Shiv Sena), Harkishen Singh Surjeet (CPM), A.B.Bardhan (CPI), Farooq Abdullah (NC), Mamata Bannerjee (Trinamool Congress), Chandrababu Naidu (TDP) and M.Karunanidhi (DMK).