The Health Ministry is working on a Bill which, if all goes to plan, will place public health in times of natural disasters, epidemic outbreaks and acts of terror in the Concurrent List before the end of this year, giving the Centre the power to independently promulgate laws and lay down rules. Public health is so far a state subject, exclusively in the domain of state governments.

The recent outbreak of avian flu in West Bengal has convinced the Ministry that more powers need to be vested with the Centre. “During the avian flu outbreak, Panchayat elections were due in West Bengal. So the state government could not take certain steps which were necessary in those circumstances. The Ministry could not intervene as health is a state subject. Though the Health Ministry had for long felt the need to bring health under its control, this incident highlighted the urgency for such an amendment,” a senior Health Ministry official told The Indian Express.

The Bill being drafted by the Ministry will also lay down guidelines to be followed in case of natural disasters and epidemics. The Public Health Bill 2007 aims “to provide, prevent, control and manage epidemics or dangerous epidemic diseases, acts of bioterrorism and threats thereof”.

The draft of the proposed Bill has already been examined by a Parliamentary committee and a Cabinet note has also been circulated. The proposed Bill is likely to be discussed in the forthcoming session of the House.

For the first time, terrorism and its consequences have been taken into account in the proposed Bill. Together with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), states and Union Territories have evolved Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on disaster management.

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