Rs 37-cr Central grant for Assam floods

NEW DELHI, August 2: The Agriculture Ministry has sanctioned Rs 37 crore to the Assam government for undertaking flood control work provoking some of the Congress members to protest the 'meagre' allocation of funds. Union Agriculture Minister, Nitish Kumar, however, did not feel that the amount was inadequate. He argued that the flood control problem in Assam has to be seen in larger perspective. So far over 4560 km embankments have been constructed and 945 km drainage channels have been created in Assam to tackle the flood problems in the state, he claimed. Kumar was reacting to Paban Singh Ghatowar's contention that the amount was inadequate to control floods in the state. He also demanded that the Centre should take overall view of the flood problem of the state to tackle it. The Minister earlier informed the Lok Sabha that his Ministry has prepared what was called flood plain zoning through which the states were given detailed information about the flood-prone areas of the concerned states. The states, accordingly, have been advised to formulate regulations to minimise losses caused by the floods. The regulations the Minister was referring to related to the proposed plans to limit economic and human habitation in the flood-prone areas in a state to ensure minimal loss by floods. The clause, it may be mentioned, is now proposed to be included in the National Water Policy which is at the drafting stage. Meanwhile, the Agriculture Minister revealed that outlays for flood control for year 2000-01 for the Northeastern states were as follows: Arunachal Pradesh Rs 12 crore, Manipur Rs 10 crore, Meghalaya and Nagaland Rs 30 crore each, and Tripura Rs 5.90 crore. The minister also said that during the previous year Assam sustained a loss of Rs 54.14 crore due to floods and heavy rains as against a total loss of Rs 36.36 crore the year before. According to the Agriculture Ministry's own estimate, on an average 13.34 lakh hectares of area in Assam is destroyed by erosion while another 4.50 lakh hectares are affected by water logging. Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Water Resources Bijoya Chakraborty in a written reply said that according to a Master Plan prepared by the Brahmaputra Board the following areas have been identified as severe erosion-prone : Mathala, Oakland, Mohanaghat, Disangmukh, Neamatighat, Moriahola, South Salmara, Gumi, Palasbari, Goalpara, Fakirganj, Alikash on the southern bank and Majuli, Viswanath, Silguri, Soalkuchi, Hatimora, Mukalmua and Bahari on the northern bank. The Minister asserted that the remedial measures suggested in the Master Plan included construction of embankment, raising and strengthening of existing embankments, anti-erosion and drainage development measures.