Provision for loan waiver taken off from DM Act, Centre tells Kerala High Court

The Centre on Wednesday informed the Kerala High Court that the Section that empowered the Indian National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to recommend banks to waive/write off loans or grant fresh loans to persons affected by disasters of severe magnitude had been removed from the Disaster Management (DM) Act.
This was submitted by the Disaster Management Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs in an affidavit filed before the court. It said that Section 13 of the DM Act, which had given such powers to the National Disaster Management Authority, had been omitted by way of an amendment to the Act in 2025. The affidavit added that the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services had made available the geospatial data related to building footprints and air-borne laser terrain mapping through its FTP site, which was shared with the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority on May 19.

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