Pradyut Bordoloi, Assam member of the Lok Sabha, wrote to his fellow members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to bring up the issue of Assam’s annual flood devastation and to urge them to bring up our people’s plight in Parliament regardless of state or party affiliation.
Bordoloi in his letter stated that given the nature and scale of flooding in Assam, as well as the fact that it involved the larger issue of river-basin management, the role and support of the Centre was crucial. He reiterated the demand to declare Assam’s flood a national calamity in light of its magnitude and destruction it causes every year.
The minister wrote in the latter, “The comprehensive tackling of flooding and riverine erosion, cannot be left to the meagre resources of a single state like Assam. As per data provided in the Lok Sabha (Q.2668/14th Dec 2021), no funds were released under NDRF to Assam in the years 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2021-22. In 2020-21, while the State Government sought Rs. 2642.99 crores for restoration works, only a mere Rs. 44.37 crores was released. In this context, I draw your attention to the long-standing plea to declare flooding in Assam as a national calamity because this perennial problem of Assam has to be addressed holistically.”
The issue of water-induced disasters in Assam is too serious to be dismissed as a regional or state need, he noted, with 40 percent of Assam’s area (close to 32 lakh hectares) being flood-prone, approximately four times greater than the national figure of 10.2 percent.
At the time, the Assam floods were on the decline. Though more than 190 people have already died and more than 54 lakh people have endured suffering.
