Political row breaks out between Central and State governments over IAF’s ₹132 crore demand from Kerala as airlift charges

Teams of Special Operations Group and IAF, along with one Cadavar dog being airlifted during a search and rescue operation at a landslide-hit area in Wayanad on August 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI

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Another political row has broken out between the State and Central governments over the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) renewed demand that Kerala recompense the outstanding ₹132 crore airway bill incurred by the Ministry of Defense during disaster-related humanitarian operations since 2019.

The latest wrangle over underwriting the costs of emergency disaster response has erupted at a critical time when the ruling front and opposition were jointly pressing Kerala’s case for significant federal aid to rehabilitate landslide-ravaged localities in the Wayanad district in the Lok Sabha.

Speaking to reporters in Thrissur, Revenue Minister K. Rajan took strong exception to a communique from the Centre in October stipulating that Kerala urgently remit the significant operational costs sustained by the IAF for search, rescue and relief operations during natural disasters, including the recent Wayanad landslide.

A joint secretary in the rank of Air Vice Marshal in the Ministry of Defence’s Department of Military Affairs had raised the demand for settlement of outstanding airlift charges in a letter to the Chief Secretary of Kerala. He also dispatched an itemised airway bill to the State government.

Centre’s “discrimination”

Mr. Rajan portrayed the communique as the latest example of the Centre’s discrimination towards Kerala.

He said the Centre “unjustly” wanted the State to recompense the IAF for humanitarian operations conducted during catastrophic natural disasters, including the 2019 floods, by dipping into the administration’s State Disaster Relief Funds.

Moreover, Mr Rajan said the Centre has continuously stonewalled Kerala’s request to categorise the Wayanad landslide as an L3 (Level 3 Large Scale) Disaster. Such a declaration, he said, would open the doors for federal and also multi-national aid. 

Financial crisis

Mr Rajan said Kerala was critically low on money. The Centre was unwilling to release emergency aid for Wayanad for overtly political reasons. 

Without central disaster aid, Mr Rajan said, Kerala could ill-afford to compensate the IAF. “Such a move would push the State into a crisis. It will deplete the SDRF funds required for disaster aid,” he pointed out. 

Mr Rajan also conceded that the State had no option but to compensate the IAF from limited SDRF funds if the Centre repeatedly demanded payment.

He said the State government would petition the Centre again to waive the huge airway bill raised by the IAF with retrospective effect from 2019. 

UDF-LDF MPs Parliament protest

Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader K Radhakrishnan, MP, told reporters in New Delhi that the Centre had insulted Keralites by demanding cash for IAF’s disaster operations when the State was struggling to rehabilitate disaster-hit people in Wayanad. 

His reaction hours before MPs from Kerala, including Congress’s Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, demonstrated outside the Parliament against the Centre’s reluctance to release aid for Wayanad.

Ms  Gandhi told reporters outside the Lok Sabha that partisan politics governed the Centre’s disbursal of disaster aid. She pointed out that Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh, which endured destructive flash floods and mud slips (in July 2023), still struggled for Central assistance.

Ms Vadra said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should set aside partisan politics in times of national tragedies and reassert his role as the custodian of citizens’ lives and property. 

Kerala’s Special Representative in New Delhi, K.V. Thomas, told reporters in Kochi that the Centre appeared to strike a politically vindictive approach to the people of the State. He said Mr Modi’s assurances to the people of Wayanad, including children orphaned by the landslide, appeared to be in vain.

Kerala was not holding out a bowl for alms from the Centre. It was demanding its due as a provincial government in a federal set-up, Mr. Thomas said, adding the Centre had liberally assisted other States hit by natural disasters.

The Wayanad disaster had few parallels in the country. “Kerala’s people are not easily frightened. They will seek political and legal recourse to restore their federal rights”, he said.