Union Minister of State for Sports, Sarbananda Sonowal has said that the Congress-led Assam Government is in possession of Rs1,400 crore and argued that this unspent amount should be utilised for the relief of flood-affected people.
Sonowal said this while interacting with newsmen here on Monday. His reaction came in the wake of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's allegation that the Central Government has not been releasing enough funds to tackle the current wave of devastating floods in the State.
As of Monday a total of over 14 lakh people are marooned due to the floods in the State and a total of 44 people had been killed in the floods that hit the State in June this year. The current wave of floods hit the State on August 28.
The Assam Chief Minister has earlier said that while Assam is reeling under flood where around 17 lakh people are affected, the BJP leaders instead of helping the flood victims are shedding crocodile tears and indulging in mud-slinging to destabilise the Government.
"We do not want to do politics when the State is reeling under the severity of flood. But the State Government is blaming the Centre for not releasing adequate funds. I want to say that as on April Rs1,655 crore has been released by the Centre including State’s share of Rs23 crore to the State Disaster Response Fund. The State Government still has a balance amount of Rs1,400 crore," Sonowal said.
"The Centre and State wants to work with a spirit of unity to tackle the problem of flood. It is unfortunate; the State Government instead of cooperating has resorted to blame game. This would not serve the purpose. Centre is ready to provide all assistance, but let the State Government first spend Rs1,400 crore," Sonowal added.
The State Government has however, been maintaining that the Centre had released Rs207 crore in May this year as first installment of the current year's central allocation of Rs414 Crore under State Disaster Response Fund. It added that after the first installment in May, no funds either under SDRF or under the special package, have been released to the State Government to mitigate the impact of severe floods.
The State Government also said that it has been asking the Centre to release another Rs500 crore as interim flood relief fund.