(a) the details of the assistance and arrangements provided to Assam and North-Eastern States to tackle floods;
(b) whether the availability of proper medical arrangement and hospitals is ensured in flood affected areas and if so, the details thereof;
(c) the number of people affected by floods in Assam and North-Eastern States during the last three years; and
(d) whether the Government has adopted any measures for permanent solution of the flood related problems occurring every year?
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI & SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT
(SHRI RATTAN LAL KATARIA)
(a) The subject of Flood Management including erosion control falls within the purview of the States. The flood management & anti-erosion schemes are planned, investigated and implemented by the State Governments with own resources as per priority within the State. The Union Government only renders assistance to States which is technical, advisory, catalytic and promotional in nature.
Government of India launched a Flood Management Programme during XI Plan with an outlay of Rs. 8000 crore for providing central assistance to the State Governments for taking up works related to river management, flood control, anti-erosion, drainage development, flood proofing works, restoration of damaged flood management works and anti-sea erosion works. The Government of India has approved the continuation of “Flood Management Programme” during XII Plan (2012-17) with an outlay of Rs.10,000.00 Crore.
A total 259 projects costing Rs 3243.03 Cr of North Eastern region were approved during XI (195 projects costing Rs 1520.14 Cr) Plan and XII (64 projects costing Rs 1722.89 Cr) Plan. A Central Assistance of Rs 1292.86 Cr was released, during XI Plan (Rs 1051.45 Crore), XII Plan (Rs 241.41 Cr) Plan and in FY 2017-18 (267.14 Cr), FY 2018-19 (152.959 Cr) and in FY 2019-20 (28.17 Cr). Total release till date is 1741.1182 Cr.
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Further, Ministry of Finance has advised that the spillover works of XI and XII Plan under FMP have to be completed first before taking up new works. For executing these works, a Flood Management and Border Area Programme (FMBAP) EFC with an outlay of Rs.3342 Cr for 2017-20 period has been approved which includes Rs.2642 Cr for spill over works of XI and XII Plan under FMP and Rs. 700 Cr for River Management in Border Areas (RMBA).
Moreover, Ministry of DoNER has released Rs.197.83 Crore in current financial out of one time grant of Rs.200.00 Crore for rebuilding totally washed away/damaged infrastructure during floods in 2017 in the North Eastern Region.
(b) Health Department in association with the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) and District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) takes up various Health Management activities such as Health Camps, free medicines, deployment of medical teams, sanitation and hygiene and necessary provisions in hospitals for emergency health management.
(c) As per the information provided by the State Govt. of Assam & Tripura. number of people affected by floods are as follows:
State Year Population
2015 18,000
Assam 2016 3,000
2017 56,02,000
State Year Population
2017 1,97,618
Tripura 2018 1,88,676
2019 1,46,978
(d) In the recent past, in compliance of the direction given during Hon’ble Prime Minister visit to Guwahati on 15th, August, a high level committee (HLC) for Management of Water Resources in the North East Region was constituted by Ministry of DoNER under the Chairmanship of Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog in October, 2017. The terms of reference of HLC included appraisal of the existing institutional arrangement for management of water resources in the North East Region, identification of Gaps in the existing arrangement of Water Resources, suggesting policy intervention spelling out actionable measures and chalking out plan of action for dovetailing of schemes/programmes of Union Ministries and State Governments.
The details of recommendations and findings by the committee to tackle the problem of flood and erosion in the state includes immediate term, short term and medium term action points emphasizing on Integrated Water Resources Management covering all aspects of Water Resources. In addition, committee has also recommended to establish a Basin level authority namely North Eastern Water Management Authority (NEWMA).
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