AASU Seeks Special Relief Package, Long-Term Rehabilitation Policy for Assam Flood Victims

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) today urged Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma to provide a special package to the flood-devastated people in Sivasagar, Charaideo and Jorhat districts, as a general rehabilitation grant will not help them to stand on their feet again.

AASU president Utpal Sarma said that AASU has written to the Chief Minister urging for a permanent and long-lasting rehabilitation policy to be drawn up for the people who have lost everything in the floods. Most of the flood-devastated people have lost their life savings and are now facing an uncertain future. "The government is providing relief, and the people are also pitching in, but this is not enough. So we demand a special package for the people hit by the unprecedented flood. They have lost everything - property, savings, documents, livestock, small businesses, etc.," Utpal Sarma said.

AASU leaders want a high-level fact-finding team to be constituted, comprising experts from IIT Guwahati, experts from Gauhati, Tezpur and Dibrugarh universities, environmental experts, water resources experts, etc., to determine why the unprecedented floods happened and to put in place precautionary measures so that such an event is not repeated in the future.

AASU has drawn up a list of demands for the flood-hit people- (i) An online portal should be set up to issue damaged birth, residential, caste, income and other government certificates to the victim families; (ii) A special online portal for the reissue of damaged educational documents like mark sheets, admit cards, pass certificates, etc., to affected students by the universities, boards, etc.; (iii) Students who were earlier left out of the government's fee waiver scheme are to be included now, and also the government should bear the expenses for their upcoming semesters; (iv) instructions by the government to banks to relax the EMIs for loans taken for cars, tractors, two-wheelers, businesses, etc., and also waiver of all municipality and local body taxes for a period of five years; (v) special grant for rebuilding/renovation of damaged houses, if necessary to change existing rules for relief and rehabilitation; (vi) special schemes on a priority basis for those who lost their livestock, crops and horticulture farms.

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