A day after Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi sought an assistance of `500 crore as immediate flood relief to the State, Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Jitendra Singh, assured that the Centre is releasing `207 crore immediately to the State and added that more assistance will be released depending on the memorandum submitted by the State Government.
Singh said this in Guwahati on Tuesday after making an aerial visit to some of the flood-hit areas of the State on Tuesday. He also interacted with the some of the flood affected people at a relief camp in Bongaigaon district.
He said that the Central Government has been very fast in responding to the current wave of floods in Assam and added that this is one of the reasons for which there has been less causality due to floods this time.“Following heavy rain since August 17, the water level of Brahmaputra and other rivers including Jia Bharali, Putimari, Beki and Manas began to flow above normal level, which led to the floods. However, within two days of this, six teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is in Assam to carry out rescue operations,” he said adding that this indicates the Centre’s commitment towards the region.
He said that 17 districts of Assam were affected in the current wave of floods of which Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Dhubri, Sonitpur, Dhemaji, lakhimpur, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia have been affected badly. “However, the damage has been limited due to immediate response by the various agencies, including NDRF,” he said.
The six teams of NDRF have already been deployed for rescue work in the flood affected areas of Tinsukia, lakhmipur, Kokrajhar and Kamrup and one Battalion of NDRF is stationed in the Capital city of Guwahati to move into action as and when required without wasting any time.
He said that NDRF teams have evacuated over 600 people to safer places from the flood affected areas. “Now the flood waters have started receding. So our duty is to ensure that there is no spread of any disease in flood affected areas. A team of doctors and paramedics will be sent to the State soon to work out a strategy to stop spread of diseases,” he added.
“We have asked the State to furnish a detailed report of the damages in the form of a memorandum and once it is received, the Centre will accordingly plan out further help and assistance,” he said.