IMPHAL, Aug 17 - At a time when Manipur is slowly limping back to normalcy after the grim situation of flood, a report by government auditor held that �planning for management of flood was done without scientific assessment of flood prone areas, morphological studies of rivers and did not comply with action plan of National Disaster Management guidelines.�
�The quantum of flood damage in terms of area, population and value of flood damage showed ascending trend during 2007-2016 in spite of execution of 22 flood management projects incurring expenditure of Rs 100.30 crore and utilisation of flood fighting materials,� says the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India report on �implementation of schemes for flood control and forecasting,� which was tabled in the recently concluded State Assembly session. �Thus overall flood fighting and control activities remained inadequate�, it observed.
Manipur suffered a huge loss of about Rs 213.71 crore as damage assessment, lost 19 lives affecting nearly 85,226 hectares of agriculture land, 16,968 hectares of fish farms, 19,095 houses, 421 government infrastructure including schools, bridges, etc.
The CAG report said the department also put into use of flood fighting materials during 2008-16. However, effective flood management including disaster preparedness and response planning including flood forecasting and warning was absent.
However, the report recommended to prepare digital elevation maps and frequency inundation maps based on scientific assessment of the flood prone areas besides constructing structures as per action plan prepared on the strength of master plan of flood management in compliance with action plan of the National disaster guidelines.
