evidence: State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) is administered as per the recommendations of the successive Finance Commissions set up under the Article 280 of the Constitution of India. Financial assistance is provided to State Government from SDRF as per the established procedure, for meeting the expenditure on relief provided to people affected by any of the 12 notified disasters. [...] For the containment measures allowed under SDRF, State Governments were allowed to spend upto 35% of the annual allocation of SDRF during the financial year 2019-20. The ceiling of 35% was further enhanced to 50% during the financial year 2020-21. Further, keeping in view the surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, the Central Government, further extended the dispensation allowed to States to utilize upto 50% of their annual allocation of SDRF, for containment measures of COVID-19 during the financial year, 2021-22. First installment of Central share of SDRF for 2021-22 amounting to Rs. 8873.60 crore has been released in advance to all States on 29th April, 2021.