Death caused due to drowning in the rivers, ponds, wells and waterfalls as well as drowning due to floods and flash floods has been declared as State Disaster or Local Disaster.
This is as per the latest notification issued by the Revenue and Disaster Management Department of the State government.
However, as per the notification, there is a need to differentiate between such death due to natural disaster/accident and death due to suicide or any criminal act.
For this purpose, there would be an inquest conducted in all such cases by an officer not less than a rank of an Executive Magistrate.
“The police would conduct an enquiry and take statements of public, as deemed fit, to ascertain circumstances that led to the death of the victim,” the notification said.
It also said that financial assistance would not be given in case the death is due to suicide or any criminal act.
Earlier, ‘Lightning Strike’ has already been declared as State Disaster or Local Disaster and covered for relief assistance as per State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) norms.
As per the Office Memorandum issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on January 12, 2022, the State government can use up to 10 per cent fund of the annual allocation of the SDRF for providing immediate relief to the victims of natural disasters that they consider to be ‘disasters’ within the local context in the State and which are not included in the notified list of disasters of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) subject to the condition that the State government has listed the State specific natural disasters and notified clear and transparent norms and guidelines for such disasters with the approval of the State Executive Committee (SEC).
Any amount spent by the State for such disasters over and above the ceiling would be borne out of its own resources and would be subject to the same accounting norms.
