On 18th July Thursday, the Union Minister of state for Jal Shakti, Rattan Lal Kataria rejected the appeal on the ground that there was no provision to declare any disaster like floods as national disaster or calamity. Earlier congress MP’s had protested in front of the parliament to declare flood as a national problem.
KRC TIMES Desk
Lakhs of people have been affected due to floods in Assam in around 4,626 villages. Around I lakh 50 thousand 426 people have been shifted to the relief camps. Due to this deplorable condition, the MPs from Assam have been demanding that a national disaster tag be declared for such a grim situation. They have earlier protested in front of the Parliament to declare flood as a national problem.
On Thursday, the Union Minister of state for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria rejected the appeal on the ground that there was no provision to declare any disaster like floods as national disaster or calamity. A large part of the state is being badly affected due to erosion.
However, the Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, sought the intervention of the planning body at the fifth governing council meeting of the NITI Aayog in Delhi to include erosion in the list of natural calamities for financial assistance under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and the The State Disaster Response Fund(SDRF).
Though flood water in most parts of the state is receding, 28 districts continue to be affected. The SDRF, NDRF and local administrations evacuated 12,333 people. On a query put by All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal, Kataria was of the view that Assam Water Resource Department has not taken any initiative to check soil erosion in the Brahmaputra for the last three years.
On Thursday Himanta Biswa Sarma, through a video conference directed all deputy commissioners to reach out to the flood-affected victims and provide all sorts of assistance to the people. He assured that the state government would provide the necessary financial assistance.
It was decided in the meeting that at least five medical camps should be set up per constituency and provide adequate food stock, baby food, hire boats for rescue, provide tarpaulins and necessary items and distribute cattle feed to the flood-affected people.
A mobile veterinary camp was organised by a team of Guwahati National Disaster Response Fund NDRF’s veterinary doctors and nursing assistant staff in Morigaon district
