Assam govt seeks Rs 2939 cr assistance from Centre to tackle flood damage, 7-member inter ministerial central team arrives in Guwahati

Assam Chief Secretary VK Pipersenia said that, the state government had made a preliminary assessment of flood damages and submitted a detailed list of damage caused to infrastructure under various departments under the state government to the centre.

“Out of Rs 2939 crore, about Rs 1800 crore would be required to repair and strengthen embankments and other flood control measures across the state,” the Assam Chief Secretary said.

To access the flood situation and damages in the state, a 7-member inter ministerial central team led by V Shashank Shekhar, Joint Secretary of Union Home ministry on Tuesday had arrived in Guwahati.

Following Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on July 18, the inter ministerial central team arrived Assam today as per directions of the Prime Minister within a week’s time to assess the damage due to the recent wave of flood in the state.

The team will conduct an on-the-spot assessment of the flood situation and will be visiting flood affected areas of Biswanath, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Barpeta, Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts of Assam on July 25-28.          

Noteworthy that for the first time an inter ministerial central team is visiting the state in the midst of flood period to assess the damage which signifies the urgent follow up action taken by the Centre.

Before starting their tour to the flood affected districts, the team had a meeting with all the senior government officials of the key line departments under the chairmanship of Assam Chief Secretary VK Pipersenia at Chief Secretary’s conference hall in Janata Bhawan on Tuesday.

Commissioner and Secretary of Revenue department Rajesh Prasad gave an overview of the present flood scenario and resultant damages in the meeting.

Chairing the meeting, Chief Secretary Pipersenia apprised the team about the pro-active measures taken by the state Government to minimize suffering of the flood affected.

Pipersenia also informed about the Chief Minister’s recent meeting with the Prime Minister in New Delhi where the former submitted a memorandum highlighting the flood and erosion situation in the state and sought centre’s intervention for mitigating the situation.

Referring to the memorandum, the Chief Secretary stated that the Chief Minister placed two important proposals before the Government of India which include launching of ‘Prime Minister’s Special Programme for Flood and Erosion Control’ for developing road-cum-embankments stretching 5,000 km and constitution of a high level inter ministerial team headed by an Union cabinet minister to study the impact of floods and erosion and suggest permanent measures for mitigating the problem.

V Shashank Shekhar, who led the team said that they would visit the entire flood affected areas and interact with the flood hit to assess the situation.

The other members of the team are PM  Scott, Chief Engineer (B&BBO), Water Resources, CWC, Shillon, BK Mishra, Asst. Director (FCD), Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, Sachin Kumar Gautam, Asst. Executive Engineer (Regional Officer), Road, Transport and Highways, Guwahati; Rakesh Kumar, Assistant Director, Rural Development, National Rural Road Development Agency (NRRDA), Sanjay Kumar, Director (States-NE) Niti Aayog, New Delhi, Dr AL Wagmare, Director (DSD), Agriculture & Cooperation, Department of Sugarcane Development, Lucknow, UP.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)