TURA: A High Level Inter Ministerial Central Team headed by a Joint Secretary from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, on Friday evening met with the officials of West and South West Garo Hills to assess the extent of the damage caused by the July flood and landslides in the two districts.
The Inter Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) team was headed by K B Singh, Joint Secretary (FFR) from Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, and included Dependra Kumar, Director (PF-S), Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure (Finance and Commission Division), Narendra Kumar, Director, DJD, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Department of Agriculture, Govt. of India, Dinesh Kumar, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. Of India, Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi, Narsi Ram Meena, Deputy Director, Central Electricity Authority, R K Puram, Sewa Bhavan, New Delhi, Abhishek Sinha, Superintending Engineer, Central Water Commission, River Management Coordination Directorate, Meghana Circle, Silchar Assam and Anirban Acharya, Executive Engineer, Regional Office, MORT & H, Guwahati, Assam.
During the presentation of the districts, K B Singh informed that the expenditures incurred should include only for the days during the flood and necessary guidelines to be followed while submitting the proposals were also instructed to the district officials during the brief meeting.
During the meeting, the West and South West Garo Hills district gave a power point presentation showing the detail report on the recent flood that occurred from 13th to 14th July, 2019 and the number of villages affected including number of affected households, damage caused to public property, agricultural crops, number of relief camps and the immediate action taken like supplying of potable drinking water, essential relief materials, supplementary nutrition like baby food, etc for children in relief camps including the feed, medicines and vitamins for affected animals during the flood.
According to the presentation, in West Garo Hills district three blocks namely, Selsella, Demdema and Tikrikilla C & RD Blocks were affected and Gratuitous Relief had been given for 14 days in all the three blocks and household goods were issued to the affected families and including all affected departments of the district, a total of Rs. 78,65,25,022 crores have been submitted to the government for approval.
Meanwhile, the South West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner has submitted about Rs. 17152709 crores for Gratuitous Relief and other cost incurred during the recent flood which affected two blocks namely Zikzak and Betasing in the South West Garo Hills district which he informed happened to be one of the most severe floods experienced in the last 25 years.
In his concluding remark, the Joint Secretary, Government of Meghalaya, Revenue, Relief and Disaster Management, Bhupesh Hajong expressed his gratitude to the Central team for making on the spot assessment of the recent flood and damages caused due to flood and also requested them to consider the proposals submitted by the State Government. He also explained by comparing the flood that occurred due to incessant rain way back in 2014 in which 64 lives were lost causing massive damage to property, etc in all the districts of Garo Hills which is little different now since the recent flood had been caused by the rain and due to backflow of Jinjiram river in the area.
Deputy Commissioner, SWGH Ram Kumar S, Additional Deputy Commissioner and Incharge Deputy Commissioner, West Garo Hills C N Sangma and other officials of both districts took part in the meeting.
On Saturday, the central delegation undertook a tour of the flood affected areas in West and South West Garo Hills districts to see for themselves the damage left behind by the flood waters.