GUWAHATI: AssamChief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today Taking part in the fifth Governing Council Meeting of the NITI Aayog held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Saturday, Assam chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal flagged the need for effective management of flood and erosion problem in the state.
Sonowal also raised key issues pertinent to the state’s development and underlined the future roadmap for state and central government’s partnership.
The chief minister stressed on efficient management of flood and erosion problem afflicting a large part of the state every year. He pointed that the norms of relief and rehabilitation provided to the flood affected people as per SDRF guidelines are low and urged for substantially increasing funds for prevention, mitigation, preparedness and rehabilitation after natural calamities.
The chief minister also strongly vouched for NITI Aayog’s intervention to include river erosion in the admissible list of calamities for funding under NDRF or SDRF so that quick and timely steps can be taken to counter erosion.
Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central Government for setting up a high level committee for proper management of water resources in North Eastern region under the chairmanship Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog, the chief minister opined that suggestions made in the draft report of the committee would go a long way in finding a permanent solution to the problems of flood and erosion in Assam.
Sonowal also informed that the state government had made remarkable progress in addressing the needs of the seven selected aspirational districts of the state and an amount of Rs 28 crore had been kept in state budget of current financial year for taking up new activities in those districts. He also referred to Hailakandi district’s achievement of being ranked first among the aspirational district in India for which Rs. 10 crore was awarded to the district.
Saying that there was urgent need to update the data for providing benefits of flagship programmes of the central government like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen, Ujjwala, Swachh Bharat etc, the chief minister remarked that data sourced from Socio Economic Caste Census 2011 for these schemes did not provide an adequate picture about the genuine beneficiaries of present times as some people might have moved out from poverty categories and on the other hand, new people might be eligible for inclusion.
He also expressed optimism that the next Finance Commission would provide funds for development of Sixth Schedule Council areas of the state.