With the monsoon expected to make an onset in Assam soon, state Chief Secretary Ravi Kota on Monday (April 29) reviewed the state-level flood preparedness in a high-level meeting held in Guwahati.

The meeting was attended by senior officials of the concerned state government departments and nodal officers of various stakeholders.

Chief Secretary Kota also took stock of the district-level preparedness from the District Commissioners (DCs) through video-conferencing during the meeting. Principal Secretary of Assam Revenue and Disaster Management Department, Gyanendra Dev Tripathi, briefed the Chief Secretary and other stakeholders on the state-level preparedness before the arrival of the rainy season.

Tripathi also highlighted the norms of assistance from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and delegation of financial powers and budget provisions made for FY 2024-25 under the major heads of account.

On the other hand, the Civic Data Lab (CDL) made an online presentation on Intelligent Data Solution for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDS-DRR) developed for the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) in response to flood resilience.

Chief Secretary Kota suggested the CDL to look into the possibilities of capturing aggregated data to address ‘Disaster Response’ along with resilience and flood preparedness aspects. Several decisions regarding flood response during the rainy season were also taken in the meeting.

As per the Assam finance department’s August 2023 notification, power has been delegated to the DCs under Delegation of Financial Power Rules, 2022 pertaining to the issuance of administrative approval and sanction for undertaking petty or minor works due to disaster in case of flood-damage related works for the period of April 1 to October 31 every year.

In the meeting, the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) informed that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) will issue the updated forecast for Assam by the end of May.

The Brahmaputra Board informed that they have nine ongoing projects in Majuli, where 97 per cent works have already been completed, with geo bags and porcupines at the project sites being prepositioned to meet any eventualities during the floods.

The Public Works Roads Department (PWRD) sought to explore the provision of taking up repairing and restoration works of roads under multiple financial windows adding certain attributes in consultation with the finance department as per the existing SDRF and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) norms for retraction of the damaged roads.

It was decided that the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) will provide details of status of the ongoing works in Dima Hasao district and steps taken on the request made by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) in ensuring safety of the railway tracks.

The food and civil supplies and consumer affairs department requested Chief Secretary Kota to take up the issue of allocating 20,000 metric tonnes of Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) rice to Assam with the Central government.

UNICEF informed that they will assist the Assam government in assessment of one-third of the model relief camps to be set up in every revenue circle of the state on minimum assured services.

These model relief camps will be monitored by the all-women groups. UNICEF also agreed for develop a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and guidelines for the conduct of Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) for the state.

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