Odisha Tops List Of States Prone To Natural Calamities

Bhubaneswar:  Even as the Budget making process is on, Odisha has reason to worry because the interim report of the 15th Finance Commission does not bode well for the state. The state’s share from the transfer of funds of the divisible pool will be 4.629 per cent. The divisible pool of Central taxes has shrunk by almost Rs 59,000 crore and this is likely to reduce Odisha’s share by about Rs 3,000 crore. 

Odisha has scored 90 out of 100 in Disaster Risk Index (DRI)  topping the list of vulnerable states in the Finance Commission’s new concept of DRI in its interim report. It has been developed through a quantitative exercise assigning scores to the probability of hazards striking states and the extent of vulnerability. 

Allocation under State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) has improved with Rs 28,983 crore earmarked for all states. Odisha, which is prone to natural calamities, has been allotted SDRF of Rs 2,139 crore, out of which Central share will be Rs 1,604 crore and state’s share will be Rs 535 crore. 

DRI assigns a maximum score of 15 to each of the four major hazards, which affect different parts of the country – floods, drought, cyclone and earthquake, constituting a total of 60. Depending upon the level of probability of a hazard, states have been assigned scores of 0, 5, 10 and 15 in increasing order. In addition, all states have been assigned an equal score of 10 for smaller local hazards, bringing the maximum score to 70.

Odisha has received full marks, 15 each in floods, drought and cyclone while it got five marks for earthquake. In others also, the state got full marks of 10. It has also got full 30 for poverty points, which combined with 60 points in DRI, makes a score of 90 out of 100.