GUWAHATI, Dec 26 – The Central government’s promise of providing an amount of Rs 500 crore during the 9th Five Year Plan period for taking up flood control measures remained on papers only as the State received only Rs 54 crore during that period, highly placed Flood Control Department sources said. Sources told The Assam Tribune that during the last two years of the 9th Plan period, the Department did not receive any money from the Central Water Resources Ministry. The funding pattern for the 10th Five Year Plan period is yet to be finalised, but the Department has submitted detailed project reports amounting to Rs 300 crore for the first three years of the 10th Plan.
However, the Planning Commission provided two special installments of Rs 10 crore and Rs 8.46 crore respectively in the last financial year against specific projects like Kokilamukh Protection, Dibrugarh Protection and Dhubri Protection Schemes following a request by the Chief Minister to the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. The State government is also hopeful of receiving an amount of Rs 24.57 crore from the non-lapsable pool of Central funds against 30 ongoing projects. But Flood Control Department sources said that the Department of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER), which manages the non-lapsable pool, is not too knee on taking up new schemes at this moment.
Flood Control Department sources admitted that the overall flood control scenario in the State was hit by paucity of funds for the past few years. The Department has prepared a number of schemes as per priority amounting to Rs 1366 crore, of which, 31 schemes amounting to Rs 1078 crore were in the priority list, that is, these schemes need to be executed immediately. All these schemes have already been passed by the technical advisory committee. But no one knows as to when these schemes can be executed and under the present circumstances, it will not be possible for the Assam government to provide funds for the execution of the same. Sources revealed that earlier, the Centre used to provide funds for schemes worth Rs one crore and above, but from 1999, the Centre changed the funding pattern and now only schemes worth more than Rs three crore would be considered. After the change of the Central government strategy, the responsibility of 32 pending schemes have been shifted to the State government.
Sources revealed that under the present circumstances, it is becoming difficult even to maintain the existing “flood control structures, not to speak of taking up new schemes. The State has 4448 kilometres of embankments, 846 kilometres of drainage channels, 533 anti-erosion works and 85 sluices, but majority of those were constructed in the early 1960s and are in bad shape due to lack of proper maintenance. Sources revealed that according to technical experts an amount of Rs 70 crore is required annually for proper maintenance of the age-old flood control structures, but this year a meagre amount of Rs 5.25 crore has been earmarked for the same. In the State plan, only an amount of Rs one crore has been provided this year, with which schemes all over the State including the 6th schedule and Autonomous Council areas would have to be taken up.
Meanwhile, steps have been initiated for closing the breaches that occurred on the embankments in the current years from the funds provided from the Calamity Relief Fund. However, majority of the prominent contractors are not willing to take up jobs because of the failure of the Flood Control Department to clear the outstanding dues. The outstanding dues to the contractors now amount to over Rs 60 crore and some contractors have already approached the court.