(a) whether the Government has constituted or proposes to constitute a permanent, integrated institutional apex body for flood management in the form of a National Integrated Flood Management Group (NIFMG);
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Government has formulated a National Policy on Flood Control and Management; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
(a) & (b) There is no proposal under consideration of the Government to constitute a permanent, integrated institutional apex body for flood management in the form of a National Integrated Flood Management Group (NIFMG) as flood management including erosion control falls within the purview of the States. Flood management and anti-erosion schemes are formulated and implemented by concerned State Governments as per their priority. The Union Government supplements the efforts of the States by providing technical guidance and also promotional financial assistance for management of floods in critical areas.
Flood protection and flood management measures are broadly classified as under-
(i) Structural Measures - The structural measures for flood control which bring relief to the flood prone areas by reducing flood flows and thereby reducing the flood levels.
(ii) Non-Structural Measures- Facilitating timely evacuation of the people and shifting of their movable property to safer grounds by having advance warning of incoming flood through setting up a flood forecasting system. Discouraging creation of valuable assets/settlement of the people in the areas subject to frequent flooding i.e. enforcing flood plain zoning regulation.
Integrated flood approach aims at adopting judicious mix of structural and non-structural measures to provide a reasonable degree of protection against flood damages at economic cost.
To strengthen the structural measures of flood management, Ministry had implemented during XI & XII Plan Flood Management Programme (FMP) for providing Central Assistance to States for works related to river management, flood control, anti-erosion, drainage development, anti-sea erosion, etc. which subsequently continued as a component of "Flood Management and Border Areas Programme" (FMBAP) for the period from 2017-18 to 2020-21 and further extended up to September 2022 with limited outlay. So far Central Assistance amounting to Rs. 6686.79 Crores has been released to Union Territories/State Government under this Programme since inception. The 415 projects completed projects under this Programme have given protection to an area of around 4.994 mha and protected a population of about 52.21 million.
(c) & (d) The National Water Policy (NWP) of Ministry of Jal Shakti has emphasized flood mitigation through structural & non-structural measures, integrated operation of reservoirs with sound decision support system, rehabilitation of natural drainage system, Integrated farming systems and non-agricultural developments, creation of storage projects with dedicated flood storage as the long term solution to the devastating floods occurring every year, etc. NWP highlights importance of flood forecasting for ?ood preparedness and expansion of flood forecast network extensively across the country and its modernization.
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