From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: For the second in 10 years, Assam Assembly has adopted a unanimous resolution to demand the Centre to recognize the perennial flood and erosion problem in Assam a national problem.
Every year flood water of Brahmaputra River and its tributaries cause immense hardship to millions of people in the State besides triggering massive erosion of the State’s land mass much to the agony of the farming community in the State.
While the Brahmaputra river system has been a boon for the farmers of the agrarian State, the same is also considered a source of sorrow for lakhs in the State because of the erosion caused by these rivers.
According to the official data available, the Brahmaputra River alone eroded away an area of 5,95,155 bighas of land in this most populous state in the North East during 1971 and 2009 rendering 40,246 families homeless in seven of the Assam Valley districts.
This year along flood has so far claimed 126 lives besides inundating houses of over 23 lakh people and a large chunk of crop land. Innumerable livestock have perished in the deluge.
In such a backdrop Assam Assembly on Thursday adopted the resolution asking the Centre to declare the state’s flood and erosion problem as a national one.
Similar resolution was adopted by 2002 Assembly resolution seeking national calamity tag to the flood and erosion problem in Assam. The Centre has so far failed to list en to the demand.