New Delhi, Aug 20: The massive floods in Kerala, which has claimed over 370 lives so far and displaced over 10 lakh people, has been declared a calamity of severe nature' by the Centre.

The declaration comes days after the Opposition attacked the government for refraining to declare the floods in Kerala as a 'natural disaster'. With the 'severe calamity' declaration issued, additional aid for the flood-ravaged state will be sanctioned.

"An inter-ministerial team led by MoS Kiren Rijiju visited Kerala on July 21, the visit of the team is only done when the natural calamity has been assessed as that of serious nature, so from the start Kerala floods were natural calamity of serious nature" a Home Ministry official said.

As per the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the tag of a 'calamity of severe nature' is issued after the calamity affects one-third of the state's population.

What happens after the calamity is declared 'severe' by the Centre?

- The Centre will have to provide additional NDRF assistance to the affected state.

- A Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) will be set-up, with the Centre and state sharing the corpus 3:1 between them.

- In case the CRF is insufficient to mitigate the plight of the affected populace, an additional financial status is provided through the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF), "which will be funded 100 per cent by the Centre".

- After the calamity is declared 'severe', the populace affected are eligible to seek fresh credit from banks despite being unable to repay their incumbent loans. They are also provided concessions and part-waiver on the loan-interests.

- In the event of ‘calamity of severe nature’ in any part of the country, an MP can recommend works up to a maximum of Rs 1 crore for the affected district from the MPLAD funds.

The calamities which have been accorded the tag earlier include the 2013 floods in Uttarakhand, the Cyclone Hudhud in Andhra Pradesh in 2014 and the Assam floods in 2015.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 20, 2018 08:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).