DOOMDOOMA, July 5 - The Flood Erosion Resistance Struggle Forum, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia district, have condemned the speech of Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria in the Rajya Sabha, where he said that there was no provision of declaring as a national disaster Assam�s flood and river bank erosion problems.
In a press statement, Forum president Binod Kedia said that as per reports, 7 per cent of the total land of Assam has been washed away due to river bank erosion up to 2012. And lakhs of people are becoming homeless every year.
The Central government has not shown any interest in solving the burning issues of Assam, he said, alleging that the government has not given a single rupee to Assam after 2012 for any new project under the Flood Management Programme, and will not provide any funding to Assam up to 2020 because of paucity of fund in the budget.
Before the 2014 election, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and now Union Minister Rameswar Teli had given a written assurance to the Forum to declare Assam�s flood and river bank erosion as a national disaster within one year, but the Forum has not seen any interest on their part, nor have they commented on the speech of Union Minister Kataria, Kedia said.
He said that the Forum had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2016 to declare the flood and erosion problem as a national disaster. The Prime Minister�s Office (PMO) had registered the letter as a public grievance dated March 14, 2016 and forwarded it to the Ministry of Home Affairs for necessary action.
The Home Ministry later informed the Forum in a letter dated April 4, 2016 that there was no provision in the National Disaster Act, 2005 to declare the situation in Assam as a national disaster, he said.
Kedia said that if the Central government is interested in saving the lives and property of the people of Assam, then an amendment can be made in the Act.
Kedia said he again wrote a letter to the Prime Minister on May 29, 2019 for solving the problem, by intervening personally and treating the issue as urgent. But the letter was again registered as a public grievance and sent to the Department of Drinking Water for action. He alleged that it means that the PMO has not read the letter or is irresponsible in its duty. The Department of Drinking Water has no any connection with the matter, and the issue is related to the ministries of Water Resources and Home Affairs.
