Sonowal takes up Brahmaputra waters turning black with PM

Guwahati, Dec 13 (IANS) Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention on the issue of the waters of river Brahmaputra, that flows in from China, turning black in parts of the state.

Sonowal met the Prime Minister in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The meeting was also attended by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Minister of Road Transport, Water Resources and River Development Nitin Gadkari, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

The Prime Minister assured Sonowal that the Centre took up the matter seriously and even engaged Central Water Commission to look into the matter and directed the Ministry of Water Resources to take remedial steps on a war footing. Modi also asked other ministries to work in synergy and directed the Ministry of Water Resources to ensure scientific tests of the Brahmaputra water to ascertain the physical and chemical composition of the river water where it turned black.

Considering the trans-national extent of the Brahmaputra, the Prime Minister also asked the External Affairs Ministry to take up the matter with the respective country to get into the root cause of the problem and find a positive solution.

Swashma Swaraj maintained that her ministry took up the matter very seriously and has already contacted China and a pragmatic and exhaustive study is being undertaken to find the real cause.

Sonowal informed Prime Minister Modi that the state government following the development directed Director General of Emergency and Fire Services A.P. Rawat to collect water samples from 15 places from Jonai to Dhubri and in pursuance to the direction Emergency and Fire Services Department already sent the water samples to the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad and IIT, Guwahati. Minister of Water Resources, Government of Assam also was directed to do the needful considering the problem.