Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday refuted Union Minister of State (Independent) Sarbananda Sonowal’s claim that the state government has failed to utilise Central funds for disaster relief.
“The state government has utilised the central allocation for disaster relief in the last fiscal, but the Centre is yet to release its share this year,” he said in a statement here.
The state government conveyed to Sonowal in a letter sent on Monday, that of the total Rs 183.38 crore Central funds available for the SDRF, Rs 162.65 crore has been already been sanctioned for repairing damages and flood relief, it said.
There would be no unspent balance available in the SDRF after meeting the huge quantum of liabilities created on account of relief and rescue operations during the recent devastating floods, the statement said.
The state government also brought to the notice of the Union Minister that till date no fund has been received from the Centre for SDRF for 2014-15.
Sonowal, who was sent along with Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the flood situation in Assam and Meghalaya, had alleged that Rs 344 crore provided by the Centre earlier was lying unutilised in the State Disaster Relief Fund.
Assam to form GoM to study floods
Meanwhile, the Assam government would soon constitute a Group of Ministers (GoM) to study the causes of devastation wrecked by the current wave of floods in Kamrup and Goalpara districts and to suggest suitable and effective measures for mitigating the risk of flooding. Gogoi on Monday announced, in a statement here, that the decision to constitute the GoM has been taken following his visit to flood-hit areas of Goalpara district on Sunday.
The GoM would make a thorough study of the flood situation in this particular belt after consultations with experts from disaster management, water resources, hydrology and other fields and submit its final report to him for necessary steps, Gogoi said.
The GoM would also formulate suitable strategies to help put in place measures that will reduce medium and long-term disaster risk and a programme of emergency reconstruction to restore access to essential services in the short term, complemented by longer-term measures to improve flood modelling capabilities, he added. (PTI)