Morigaon, July 30 (NDTV): 22 districts of Assam are flooded and nearly 18 lakh people have been displaced. Nearly 2,30,000 people are living in over 500 relief camps across the state. Does this mean the crores of spent on relief measures have had no impact? Some seem to believe so but the government strongly denies that charge.
With houses submerged and boats often become the only solace for 18 lakh people who have been affected. They sleep, cook and eat on the boats.
And that is why, many say, money spent on mitigation measures may have gone waste.
Latif Dewan, a resident of Balimukh village, says, "Whatever the government has spent has not yielded results. Crores have been spent but to no avail."
Experts say the administration has missed the bus on measures that could have helped improve the situation. Dams in upper Assam could have greatly helped deal with excess water during the flood season but now dam building may not feasible due to huge displacement fears in Arunachal Pradesh.
Former Vice- Chairman of the Brahmaputra Board SN Phukan told NDTV, "Dams are surely going to contribute to storage of flood waters thereby contributing to less discharge downstream. Therefore there will be less flooding."
General Secretary, Jamaat E Ulema Hind (Assam), Moulana Ataur Rahman Qasmi says, "There is a time for maintaining embankments. If the embankments had been repaired in time then perhaps the impact would have been less. Time bound work is necessary."
The government says this year the rains have been unprecedented. In the last three months Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have received 5957 mm rain fall. That's how much a huge state like Rajasthan gets in five years.
Nandita Hazarika, Joint Secretary of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority says, "Mitigation measures don't stop a flood. Mitigation measures only help reduce impact of flood. No one can stop a flood."
The government says the reduction in the number of deaths this year is proof mitigation measures have helped.
Rijiju conducts aerial survey of Arunachal's flood-hit areas
Itanagar, July 30 (IANS): Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijju on Saturday conducted an aerial survey of flood-hit areas of Arunachal Pradesh where more than three lakh people have been affected.
Rijiju, who was accompanied by Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein, made an aerial survey of flood-affected areas in eastern districts of Lohit, Namsai and Changlang.
More than 80 relief camps have been set up to accommodate the displaced people in the three districts.
The flood waters have submerged 3,500 hectares of agricultural land in Namsai besides damaging roads and bridges and telecommunication infrastructure.
The Union Minister, who was also accompanied by legislators, also viewed the flood condition in areas of Wakro, Namsai, Mahadevpur, Lekang, Jairampur, Miao and Chowkham.
In a flood review meeting held at Namsai, Khandu said that funds for immediate flood relief through National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) have been placed with the Disaster Management Department from where it is being disbursed to the affected districts.
The Chief Minister also instructed Chief Secretary Shakuntala Gamlin, who had accompanied him for closely monitoring the immediate relief and restoration activities.
He also instructed Namsai Deputy Commissioner R.K. Sharma to keep adequate provisions to meet any ration shortages for people camped in relief camps in the affected areas.
Khandu informed that he has been monitoring the flood situation personally and had earlier requested the Deputy Chief Minister and all local legislators from affected areas to take stock of the flood situation in their respective districts.
He appealed to the people to cooperate fully with the inter-ministerial team from the centre who would be visiting the affected areas soon - to help them prepare an "in-depth assessment" and submit its report to the Union Home Ministry "expeditiously."
