Government sources on Saturday cited a 2013 reply in Parliament by a Congress-led UPA government minister to emphasise that no concept of "national disaster" exists under the rules of the central government.
The clarification came amid a demand, including from Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, that the landslide tragedy in Kerala's Wayanad be declared a national disaster.
The then minister of state for home and Congress MP from Kerala Mullappally Ramachandran had told the Lok Sabha in 2013 in a reply to a question that "there is no provision to declare a natural disaster as a national disaster", the sources noted.
The reply stated that the government of India adjudges a calamity of severe nature on case-to-case basis, taking into account its intensity and magnitude, level of relief assistance, capacity of the state government to tackle the problem, and alternatives and flexibility available within the plan to provide succour and relief etc.
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