STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The state government has sought an amount of Rs 3,073.86 crore from the Central government for repair and rehabilitation works necessitated by the three devastating waves of floods that had hit Assam in 2022.
On behalf of the state government, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) has submitted the relevant Flood Memorandum to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The general norm is that the MHA taken the final decision regarding the quantum of flood-related financial assistance to the states concerned on the basis of such flood memorandums.
The ASDMA has appended photographs and other relevant statistics in the flood memorandum, apart from specifying dearth of funds with the state government. The memorandum has cited ground assessment by the district administrations and line department concerned of the state government to estimate that the specific requirement of funds under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF)/National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) is Rs 3,073.86 crore. Out of this fund, Rs 602.40 crore has been estimated for Gratuitous Relief (GR), ex-gratia and other purposes, and the remaining Rs 2,471.46 crore for expenditure on works other than rescue and relief operations.
The memorandum further states that due to limited resources at its disposal, the state government is unable to meet the huge expenditure for recovery, reconstruction and restoration of damaged infrastructure. As such, the flood memorandum has requested the Centre to provide the financial assistance and help the state to recover from the immense damage caused by floods in 2022.
It may be recalled that last year's floods in the state had occurred between the first week of April and the last week of October. All the 35 districts existing then (before the recent re-merging of four districts with their original entities) had been affected by the floods. A total of 181 revenue circles and a population of 88,50,686 were affected by floods in these districts . Further, there were 181 flood-related deaths and 19 landslide-related deaths during the period in question. There was also massive damage to roads, houses, embankments, railway infrastructure, school buildings, irrigation projects, crop areas and livestock due the successive waves of floods in the state.
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