GUWAHATI: Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia urged the chief minister to persuade the Centre to send a central team to take stock of the flood situation in the state, announce a special flood relief grant and release pending flood relief and flood management funds to help cope with the current crisis brought about by the deluge.
In a letter to the chief minister, Saikia pointed out that the central government had given thousands of crores of rupees to other flood-affected states but had not released a single rupee to Assam under National Disaster Relief Fund since 2014-15.
“The release of central funds under the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) to Assam since 2015-2016 has also left a lot to be desired because the full amount of allocated funds was not released to Assam,” the Opposition leader stated in the letter.
Saikia suggested that the chief minister should seek additional funds under MGNREGA to develop flood damaged rural roads and more funds for public health engineering department to facilitate provision of potable drinking water.
He further asked the chief minister to instruct district-level officials to manage flood-relief work on a war footing and depute ministers of the state to oversee such work in individual districts.
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