TURA: Meghalaya Home Minister James Pangsang K Sangma along with Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Kyrmen Shylla on Tuesday visited the flood affected plains of Phulbari-Rajabala region in West Garo Hills meeting with the displaced people and reviewing the measures taken by the district administration. There has been no respite for the 4th day from the flood waters for the over one lakh people residing in the plains belt region of Phulbari, Rajabala and Selsella.
Water from the Brahmaputra and Jinjiram rivers breached its banks on Saturday inundating vast areas of land in the low lying West Garo Hills plains forcing thousands to seek refuge onto higher ground where the government has set up dozens of relief camps to house them and one week of gratuitous relief is being provided to the camp inmates.
During the daylong trip, Home Minister James Sangma and his cabinet colleague Shylla together with the Rajabala and Phulbari legislators, Azad Zaman and S G Esmatur Mominin undertook a boat ride to survey the flood areas of Phulbari region and also interacted with the affected people in the compound of the PWD guest house at Phulbari.
Sangma was briefed by district officials about the flood situation and the steps being taken to mitigate the suffering of the affected people.
Assuring all possible help from the government for the affected people, the home minister also informed the gathering that Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma tried to undertake an aerial survey of the flood situation on Sunday but had to cancel it due to bad weather. He added that the chief minister was constantly monitoring the situation and taking feedback from the officials on the ground.
Home Minister James Sangma said that the government is open to suggestions on how to best tackle the floods and added that grievances of the people have to be tackled efficiently. He told the gathering that larger topics of development and plans to tackle floods cannot be taken up in the meeting but was here to listen to the grievances of the flood effected people so that he can take up the matter solve it at the ground level.
The Home Minister said that he is happy with the ongoing operations and relief activities being taken up by the administration in order to help the people and that everything is going smoothly without any hiccups.
He informed that as per data presented to him the water levels are subsiding and that if heavy rains do not follow suit the water levels will completely subside within a week or two.
As to the request of the Rajabala MLA Azad Zaman who wanted relief materials for the people be given for a whole month instead of a week, the home Minister replied that Relief material is based on the assessment of current requirements and situation of the scenario and based on statistics only can it be done.
The Home Minister told the gathering that the Government is doing everything in their hands to provide help and relief to the people and that the people can come forward with the grievances and approach the administration for help and solutions to solving their problems. The Home Minister assured the people that the government is there to help them and is with them in good times and bad times and will always to be there for them and encouraged the people gathered at the meeting to approach the administration for any help required.
“Government will do everything possible to overcome this challenge. We are in touch with the district administration round the clock and monitoring the situation,” said James Sangma.
As many as 159 villages have been hit by flood waters in the plains belt region affecting a population of around one lakh thirty thousand people in four assembly constituency regions.
The state declared the region flood affected on Sunday night after rising waters from the two rivers, fed by incessant rains in the upper reaches of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, dangerously rose breaching embankments and causing flooding of Phulbari, Balachanda, Bhaitbari, Rajabala, Hallidayganj and parts of Selsella.
Manmade attempts at checking floods by large scale construction of embankments like the Nagaband Solartek in Phulbari failed to prevent the flood waters from breaching the embankment and by Monday flood waters had inundated vast areas of Phulbari town.
With the rains easing up on Tuesday, there is optimism that the waters could recede by the weekend.