NEW DELHI, July 9 - Indicating continuance of its previous policy, the Centre has clarified that under the existing schemes of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) of the Ministry of Home Affairs, there is no such provision to declare any disaster, including flood, as national problem or calamity.
Flood is a natural calamity and is attributed to various factors like wide variation in rainfall, inadequate carrying capacities of rivers, river bank erosion, silting of river beds, landslides, poor natural drainage, snow melting and glacial lake bursts, Minister of State for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria said in reply to a Rajya Sabha question by BPF MP Biswajit Daimary.
However, in the event of disaster of a �severe nature�, financial assistance towards the notified natural disasters, including flood, is met from the SDRF which is further supplemented from the cess-based fund of NDRF in accordance with the established procedure, which includes an assessment based on the visit of an inter-ministerial central team.
The water resources department of the Government of Assam has taken up various projects for effective flood and erosion management in the State. The State government has also taken up initiative for corrective dredging and construction of express highways on both the banks of the river Brahmaputra along the whole length for minimising the flood and erosion for which initial survey work has already been completed.
The State government has also embarked upon the Assam Integrated River Basin Management Project at a cost of Rs 1,500 crore with funding from the World Bank. Another project for fortification of the Brahmaputra embankment system at a cost of Rs 4,454 crore has also been prepared.
