Assam seeks Rs 1,088 cr from Centre to repair damages caused by floods

Guwahati, Oct 20 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Assam government has demanded Rs 1,088.19 crore from the Centre for repair and restoration of various infrastructure damaged by the monsoon floods, officials said on Wednesday.

Officials of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said that a seven-member Central inter-ministerial team led by the Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry, Manish Tiwari, visited Assam on Tuesday and Wednesday and held meetings with the state government officials.

Assam government officials have urged the Central team to consider releasing the funds under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for repair and restoration works.

An ASDMA official said that the central team discussed the damages to properties and loss of livelihood caused by the floods.

The Assam government officials also requested the central team to consider erosion of rivers as an item admissible under SDRF and NDRF in their report to the Central government, as the state suffers heavily due to erosion every year.

Tiwari assured the Assam government officials that they would submit the report with the recommendations to the government very soon.

According to ASDMA officials, this year during the four-month southwest monsoon (June-September), eight people were killed due to the floods while five people died due to landslides, and over 6.47 lakh people were affected in 22 of the state's 34 districts.

The ASDMA officials said that around 40,000 hectares of crop areas have been inundated and around 1,250 villages have been affected by floods this year.

Meanwhile, according to the data of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), during the four-month monsoon period, Assam witnessed 22 per cent deficient rainfall.

From June to September, Assam recorded 1151.9 mm rainfall against the expected normal monsoon rain of 1,486.2 mm.

Source: IANS