Chopper used to airlift ANVC cadres, not flood-hit people
SHILLONG: The state government on Tuesday came under heavy fire in the Assembly for not engaging the helicopter service in relief and rescue work during the devastating floods in Garo Hills in September last year and using the same for other inferior purposes.
“The helicopter service was used by the state government to airlift ANVC cadres for the surrender ceremony. The same was also used when the Chief Minister made an aerial survey of the flood affected areas. Unfortunately the helicopter and boats were not utilized for relief and rescue of flood-affected victims,” stated Independent legislator John Leslee K Sangma while moving a motion in the Assembly.
He informed that when he had visited the flood-ravaged village of Moamarl to hand over relief materials, he was informed that people had called the Deputy Commissioner’s Office requesting for rescue boats and they were told that the boats were on their way but they never turned up.
“After about two hours some Army trucks turned up but all they had were only bamboos and no boats. Finally it was left to some daring souls who braved the surging waters and rescued the stranded people,” Sangma said.
The Independent MLA said he held the government 100 per cent responsible for the loss of life and property during the flood that struck Garo Hills last September since it had utterly failed to comprehend the seriousness of the warning from the Ministry of Home Affairs about heavy rainfall occurring at few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places in Garo Hills.
“This information was not passed on to the public because of which people including the local legislators were in the dark and realized the danger when the water had surged dangerously high. Had there been prior warning lives could have been saved,” Sangma said.
Referring to media reports, the South Tura legislator recalled that Chief Minister Mukul Sangma had, during a meeting, castigated the officials for being away from their work.
“Given that a large number of senior officials were absent without leave, the Chief Minister could not initiate any action other than giving a word of advice to the absentees,” the legislator said, adding that one of the reasons why the alert received from the Ministry of Home Affairs could not reach the people was that the deputy commissioner, who is also the chairman of the disaster management, was away without leave.
‘Suspension of Resubelpara DMHO a biased decision’
The South Tura legislator, meanwhile, accused the government of taking a biased decision to place the DMHO of Resubelpara under suspension for five months for being absent from duty during the Garo Hills floods.
“This officer had gone to Tura on Sept 19, 2014 to meet the SDO of the Engineering wing on a request by the Steering Committee of the North Garo Hills Development Committee to prepare a DPR for a new hospital building, but the SDO was absent. While she was in Tura, the flood and landslide struck on Sept 21,” he said.
Informing that the DMHO had tried to return to Resubelpara but failed as Tura had been practically cut off, the Independent MLA claimed that she immediately joined the DMHO of Tura in his office and started functioning from there to indent for medicines.
Questioning whether her suspension was justified when she had joined her duties two days later, the legislator said, “The issue is of biased attitude, depriving her of her constitutional right of being treated equally.”
Govt did its best to help flood affected: Laloo
Deputy Chief Minister in charge Revenue and Disaster Management, R.C. Laloo, on Tuesday asserted that that the flood and landslides in Garo Hills were unprecedented, but there was no failure on the part of the state government as it had made all efforts to protect the life and property of each and every citizen who were affected by the flood.
Laloo informed that nearly 150 relief camps were set up in different parts of Garo Hills region providing shelter to as many as 50,000 people.
Speaking on the issue of funds for relief work, Laloo said the Chief Minister had submitted a memorandum to the Centre on October 14 seeking Rs.1100 crore for restoration of critical infrastructures particularly road and bridges and financial assistance of Rs.422.31 crore from the National Disaster Relief Fund.
Laloo also informed that the union government had deputed an inter-ministerial team to the flood-affected areas for on-the-spot assessment of damages.
The inter-ministerial team recommended an amount of Rs.137.44 crore against the demand for Rs.422.31 crore.
He further informed that the state government had sanctioned advance funds to the tune of Rs.2 crore to the respective deputy commissioners in September itself for relief work, and till date around Rs.41 crore had been released.
“Without waiting for assistance from the Centre, the state government has released funds to the tune of Rs.30.99 crore from the State Disaster Relief Fund to meet expenditures of immediate nature, he said.
“Another Rs.8.53 crore has been released from the SDRF for meeting expenses relating to relief assistance to flood victims,” he added.