STAFF REPORTER GUWAHATI:
Flood-free Assam in Priority: Newly appointed Assam Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management, Hills Area Development and Mines and Minerals, Jogen Mohan said on Tuesday that his department would work on a "vision-and-mission mode" and the thrust would be to ensure a flood-free Assam, a poll promise of the BJP-led alliance.
"We have our task cut out. We are going to be focused and will work on a vision and mission mode. Among our top priorities would be to make Assam flood-free. We made this promise to our people of Assam before the elections, and we are going to keep our promise in tandem with the Water Resources Department," Jogen Mohan said talking to The Sentinel a day after being sworn in as a Cabinet Minister in the Council of Ministers.
"We're going to prepare our action plan. The first thing we will do is we are going to give a new lease of life to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA). It will get a facelift. We will make it more proactive and take all necessary steps to tackle not just floods but any other natural calamities like earthquakes and landslides," Mohan said.
This would be Mohan's second term as the Revenue and Disaster Management Minister of Assam. He held the same portfolio as Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the earlier Sarbananda Sonowal government.
Jogen Mohan has been given the additional charge of Hills Area Development and Mines and Minerals, a portfolio that was held by Sum Ronghang in the Sonowal government. Ronghang had won the 2016 elections on a BJP ticket but joined Congress just before the 2021 elections. Ronghang lost from Diphu Assembly Constituency.
Reiterating the fact that it is only the BJP that thinks and takes care of the indigenous landless people of Assam, Mohan said that his department's other priorities would be to identify all those indigenous landless people of Assam who did not get land pattas or land allotment certificates. The identified people would be given land allotment certificates in a phased manner.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Assam government's special land patta distribution programme and distributed land pattas to over one lakh indigenous landless people of Assam. This was the first time since Independence that such a large number of people were given land allotment certificates in Assam. The event was held at Jerenga Pathar, Sivasagar in January this year.