The latest report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources has brought to the fore that the Central government has remained non-committal on the recommendations of the committee for formulating a National Embankment Policy. Increasing allocations in the Central budget for Special Category States under the Flood Management and Border Areas Programme (FMBAP) could make more funds available to States like Assam for strengthening and maintenance of embankments till the Central government firms up its position on the policy recommendations by the parliamentary panel. The Committee has reiterated its recommendations to the Department of Water Resources under the Ministry of Jal Shakti to carry out scientific, morphological and modelling studies of rivers and based on the outcome of these studies, frame a National Embankment Policy. There was no change in the position of the Central government that flood management, including erosion control, falls within the purview of the state governments and it only supplements the efforts of the States by providing technical guidance and promotional financial assistance for the management of floods in critical areas, which led to the parliamentary committee reiterate its recommendation. Embankments are structural measures which play a crucial role in protecting life and livelihoods of people living along floodplains. The funding pattern under the Flood Management Programme (FMP) with a total outlay of Rs 8,000 crore during the XI plan was 90 (Centre):10 (States) for special category states in the Northeast and 75:25 for general/non-special category states. The Central assistance to the tune of Rs 3566 crore was released during this plan period for 420 works with a total estimated cost of Rs 7,857 crore for river management, flood control, anti-erosion, drainage development, flood proofing, restoration of damaged flood management works and anti-sea erosion. The funding pattern was changed to 75: 25 for special category states and 50:50 for general states for work under FMP with a total outlay of Rs 10,000 crore during the XII plan period (2012-13 to 2017-18). This increased financial burden of states towards the flood management programme impacted the flow of funds. Official data of the Ministry of Jal Shakti shows that during XII Plan (up to 31-03-2017), altogether 102 works with a total estimated cost of Rs 5,381 crore were approved under the FMP and the central assistance to the States/Union Territories to the tune of Rs 1,307 crore was released. Changing funding pattern explains the reduction in the total number of works and total central assistance as compared to the XI Plan period and this severely affected embankment works in Assam despite ravaging annual floods breaching many embankments, most of which have outlived their spans. The XII plan schemes - FMP and 'River Management Activities & Works' related to Border Areas were merged into a single and comprehensive scheme - Flood Management and Border Areas Programme (FMBAP) for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20 with an outlay of Rs 3342.00 crore (FMP-Rs 2642 crore & RMBA-Rs 700 crore). The funding pattern for FMP remained 75:25 for special category states, including the eight north-eastern states, and 50:50 for general category states and 100% Central assistance under RMBA for activities in border areas with China, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal for work related to non-structural measures like Hydrological observations and flood forecasting, investigations and pre-construction activities for water resource projects etc. The FMBAP Scheme which was extended till September 2022 allows completion of only the spillover works in respect of 83 ongoing projects as well as for the works which are completed and included earlier under the FMP during XI & XII Plans and no new project was allowed to be included under FMP components which limits the scope of the states availing central assistance for new embankment works or new anti-erosion works. The Central government released a total amount of Rs 813 crore for the XI and XII plan periods i.e. for ten years from 2007 till 2016 for 141 flood management works in Assam under the FMP against an estimated cost of Rs 2,383 crore and Rs 472 crore under FMBAP. Central fund released to Assam under FMP for the XI plan period was only about Rs 64 crore for 41 approved works compared to central assistance of Rs 748 crore for 100 works during the XI plan period which point towards the poor flow of central assistance for flood management in the state. For the FMBAP 2021-2026, the funding pattern of 90:10 has been restored for special category states but the quantum of the total amount of Rs 4,500 crore recommended by the Expenditure Finance Commission is quite less compared to allocations under Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 10,000 crore during XI and XII plan periods respectively. Assam recorded 228 breaches in embankments this year and repairing the embankments is crucial to improve flood protection for next year. If the total allocation under FMP is not increased, the state will have to face a huge challenge in mobilising adequate funds for strengthening its embankments.