Floods being declared ‘national disaster’ would solve problem?
Kerala has been witness to the most devastating floods of the century. The last two weeks have been massive testing times for the ‘god’s own country’ with more than 300 declared dead and lakhs of people being displaced owing to torrential rains and gushing waters. PM Modi visited Kerala on Sunday for an aerial survey of the affected places and declared Rs 500 crore as interim relief. The ruling party, the opposition and the government of Kerala have together requested this to be declared a national disaster. There has been widespread support to this in social media too.
What do people expect from government when a disaster of this scale hits a state? Just an aid of Rs 500 crore? Or a tag of national disaster being associated with this devastating situation? How does that help? We had urged the central government in the past to declare Kannada a classical language. What is the situation of Kannada after that status was accorded? What impact has that status had on Kannada, its culture and its studies? No one has taken this into account after that.
The status of Kannada has remained unchanged after that. Today there is a widespread effort to impose Hindi on Kannada. In the same manner, we do have a declaration of ‘national disaster’ in circulation now. There is no legal interpretation to this word. Central government is already providing some aid and help in the form of resources to Kerala. Even if it is declared a national disaster, it would not make much of a difference to the situation right now.
The disaster management act 2000 is part of larger scheme. Even then, there is no scope to declare this a national disaster. Natural disasters cannot be classified as state, national or local ones. According to the senior expert in National Disaster Management expert Anil Gupta, managing natural disasters is the responsibility of state government. The state government can only provide aid during such situation. But the central government is vested with the power to declare a national disaster. But the state govt has to seek aid from central government for this and then the centre can act accordingly.
Though national disaster has no particular meaning to it whether legal or administrational, our politicians have been repeatedly using this word time and again without understanding its full meaning. Even when floods ravaged Gujarat, Bihar, Assam and W Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir in the past, they were not declared national disasters. PM Narendra Modi had used this term for the first time in 2014. But the death and destruction in 2017 Bihar floods was much higher than whatever happened in Jammu Kashmir is a different point altogether.
National Disaster Management Authority laid out a scheme to manage disaster in 2016. It has clearly classified the types of disasters. Any disaster that can be managed with resources at district level, it is level one type of disaster. If the state has to employ its state level resources to manage the situation, it is level 2 disaster. If the calamity is of very large scale, and the state cannot manage it, it becomes a level 3 disaster. Central government has always adapted step motherly treatment about flood relief distribution to states. In 2013, the floods that ravaged Uttarakhand and the following landslides had left 5700 people dead.
The Manmohan Singh government had then provided an aid of Rs 1,000 cr to the state. Though the number of people who died in Tamil Nadu floods was lesser than that in 2015, central government had provided almost same amount of help – Rs 939.6 cr. Now, central government is exhibiting its myopic approach in Kerala too. The centre had declared Rs 100 cr to Kerala at the initial stages of the flood. It had also said the state had enough funds in its disaster management corpus. After this was criticized widely, Modi government declared another Rs 500 crore aid for the state. Now, the centre has called this a disaster of grave nature, and is trying to pacify south Indians. Yet, one fails to understand why the centre isn’t moved by this ‘grave situation’ and proving more aid for the state.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
