Drought: Buck eventually stops with you, says SC to Centre

The Supreme Court on Wednesday told the Centre that it had to act in any situation of drought, even if state governments maintained an "ostrich-like attitude" to the crisis.

A bench of justice MB Lokur and justice NV Ramana directed the Centre to revise its seven-year-old guidebook on droughts, declaring that under the Disaster Management Act, the "buck eventually stops" with the Centre.

The bench was delivering the first part of its verdict on a petition by NGO Swaraj Abhiyan that sought standard guidelines for declaring a drought, timely disbursement of loans to farmers and compensation and relief packages. The second part of the verdict is likely to be delivered on Friday, according to the Hindustan Times.

"It (the Centre) cannot totally wash its hands off on issues pertaining to Article 21 (life and liberty) of the Constitution but at the same time, we do not suggest that the authority of the state government to declare a drought or any other similar power is diluted," said the bench while rejecting the Centre's argument that it had no role in declaring a drought.

To maintain the fine line between federalism and the Centre's constitutional responsibility, the bench said the revised manual must include a time limit for states to announce extreme weather.

"The revised and updated manualshould liberally delineate the possible factors to be taken into consideration for declaration of a drought and their respective weightage," said the bench, referring to Bihar, Haryana and Gujarat which so far have not declared a drought.

The bench directed the agriculture secretary to review the situation in the three states along with the chief secretaries of the states within a week to see if a drought does exist, and if so, to persuade them to declare it. "There is no loss of face or prestige in the state declaring drought if it's warranted, although succour to the distressed might be too late," said the bench.

The manual must be updated by 31 December, said the court. It should take into account factors such as migration, suicides, distress, and the plight of women and children.

The court also ordered the creation of a National Disaster Management Plan to tackle droughts.