No additional fund from Centre to tackle Assam floods since 2016

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: For the last four-and-half years, Assam has not received any additional Central fund assistance under NDRF (National Disaster Response Fund) to tackle the devastating situations that accompany the annual floods. This is despite the loss of many lives, livestock and large-scale infrastructure damage every year. During this period, though many Central teams carried out damage assessments here; yet nothing in terms of additional fund assistance materialized.

The hard fact is that without additional Central fund assistance, it would not be possible to rebuild the large numbers of flood-damaged infrastructure across the State.

It was in fiscal 2012-13, that Assam received the last NDRF amount of Rs 45 crores.

The two main disaster-related funds given by the Centre to the States are the NDRF and the SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund). Both are under the Ministry of Home affairs (MHA).

Under the NDRF, the Centre bears the entire funding. The NDRF fund is deemed as Central financial assistance additional to the SDRF.

On the other hand, the SDRF is a normal annual allocation which the Centre has been regularly releasing to Assam. With respect to Assam, while the Centre shares 90 per cent of the SDRF amount, the State has to bear the remaining 10 per cent. The annual SDRF allocation for the State is determined by the Finance Commission. At the State level, the State Revenue & Disaster Management Department manages both the funds.

The year-wise Central allocations under SDRF during the mentioned five financial years, according to departmental sources, are: Rs 483 crores in 2016-17; Rs 507 crores in 2017-18; Rs 523 crores in 2018-19; Rs 559 crores in 2019-20; and Rs 858 crores in 2020-21.

Assam lost 64 human lives during the floods in 2016; 160 in 2017; 45 in 2018; 101 in 2019; and 102 lives have been lost till July 26, 2020.

On the other hand, floods affected 4,434 villages/ localities in 2016; 6,151 in 2017; 1,850 in 2018; and 6,391 in 2019.

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