Supreme Court: Centre can’t shrug off responsibility over drought

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took serious exception to the Centre’s stand that it is the responsibility of states to declare the entire area as drought or partially in certain areas and that the Government of India has no role in such a decision.

A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and N.V. Ramana, hearing a petition filed by Swaraj Abhiyan rejected the Centre’s argument that its role was confined to grant adequate funds to the states to tackle if there is drought. The bench asked the Centre not to put the entire responsibility on the States.

Justice Lokur told the Additional Solicitor General P.S. Narasimha, “The central government has technology at its disposal. Can you not say on the basis of that information that you (any state) are headed for trouble It’s not only money. You are also under a duty to say that everything is not alright, please take remedial measures. If the state does not do so, you have recourse to other sections of the Constitution.”

Referring to the stand of states like Bihar, Haryana and Gujarat that they do not face drought situation though they are worst affected by drought, Justice Lokur wanted to know from the ASG whether the Centre had only a limited role under the statutory scheme of things to sanction funds to states to deal with the problem.

The bench was reacting to the ASG’s submission earlier that it was the state’s responsibility to declare drought on the basis of indices such as a shortfall in rainfall, area under crop sowing, vegetation and moisture content and the Centre can only issue guidelines.

When the bench reeled out statistics the ASG admitted that 33 crore people in 224 districts of the country had been affected by the current spell of drought. The ASG said the government had apart from releasing a sum of Rs 12500 crore released another Rs 7000 crore on Monday to states to deal with their MNREGA obligations. States have also been permitted to revise their employment estimates for additional funds, he said, quoting from a recent government notification issued in April. Banks will also reschedule loans in drought-hit areas provided the debtor had not defaulted on any of his payments, he said.

On Gujarat’s stand that there is no drought and not furnishing data the bench observed “Don’t think you can take things lightly because you are Gujarat. May be you don’t want us to see the information.”

In his concluding submissions counsel Prashant Bhushan blamed the Centre of failing in its statutory and constitutional duty to endure the right to life of farmers by not fulfilling its financial commitments under MNREGA. He said the Centre is writing off PSU bank loans worth Rs 1,40,000 lakh crore, another Rs 9000 crore to Vijay Mallya and another Rs 20,000 crore to the corporate sector, but having none to fulfil its obligations to the drought-affected. Further arguments in the case will continue on April 26.