AJP urges PM Narendra Modi to Visit Flood-Hit Assam

Declare Assam floods and erosion a ‘National Calamity’

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) on Wednesday emailed a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding his immediate visit to Assam’s flood and erosion-affected areas and calling for the state’s recurring flood and erosion crisis to be declared a “Calamity of National Importance.”

The memorandum, signed by AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi and general secretary Jagadish Bhuyan, states that Assam is witnessing one of its worst flood and erosion disasters in recent years. The party said Upper Assam has been particularly devastated, with several lives lost, hundreds of people displaced or missing, and extensive damage to homes, embankments, roads and other public infrastructure.

Expressing concern over the Prime Minister’s absence from the flood-hit state this year, AJP said previous Prime Ministers had visited Assam to assess flood damage, while the Centre had sanctioned special financial packages for states such as Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Gujarat and Bihar following major natural disasters. The party argued that Assam, despite suffering recurring floods and severe erosion every year, has not received similar treatment.

The AJP also recalled that a tripartite meeting held on May 5, 2005, involving the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), the Assam Government and the Centre had agreed to recognise Assam’s flood and erosion problem as a national issue. However, it alleged that the commitment has never been implemented.

The party further pointed out that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised a permanent solution to Assam’s flood problem before the 2016 and 2021 Assembly elections, including dredging of the Brahmaputra and Barak rivers and rehabilitation of flood and erosion victims. According to AJP, those promises remain unfulfilled.

In its memorandum, the party has demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi visit the affected areas within a week, amend the Disaster Management Act, 2005—or issue an appropriate executive order—to declare Assam’s recurring flood and erosion crisis a Calamity of National Importance, and ensure that the Centre assumes full financial and administrative responsibility for relief, rehabilitation and infrastructure reconstruction through a special package similar to those extended to other disaster-hit states.

AJP urged the Union Government to respond with urgency, stating that immediate intervention is essential to prevent further loss of life, livelihoods and public infrastructure in flood-affected Assam.

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