Union Government supplements the efforts of the States including the States of North Eastern Region (NER) by providing technical guidance, financial resources and assistance for management of floods in critical areas, says G. Kishan Reddy

New Delhi : State-wise assessment of damage caused due to natural calamities, including flood, is not carried out by this Ministry.  However, State-wise details of damage caused by hydro-meteorological calamities like floods during 2022-23 (as on 12.07.2022), in the states of North Eastern Region including Meghalaya, as assessed/reported by the Disaster Management Division (Ministry of Home Affairs), are at Annexure-I.

Flood management comes under the purview of the State Governments, and the schemes for flood control, etc. are formulated and implemented by concerned States.  The Union Government supplements the efforts of the States including the States of North Eastern Region (NER) by providing technical guidance, financial resources and assistance for management of floods in critical areas. In 2017, Government of India through Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) had extended one time financial assistance of Rs. 200 crore to five NER States (viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and  Nagaland) for re-building the totally washed away/damaged infrastructure during flood in 2017. Central assistance of Rs. 139.91 crore has been released to the States of NER for anti-erosion/flood control activities and prevention of landslides during last 5 years (FY 2017-18 to FY 2021-22) under the Schemes of North Eastern Council, including Rs. 22.73 Crore for the State of Meghalaya. The Government had implemented a plan called Flood Management Programme (FMP) for providing Central Assistance to States including NER states for works related to river management, flood control, erosion control, drainage development, etc. which subsequently continued as a component of “Flood Management and Border Areas Programme” (FMBAP) for the period from 2017-18 to 2020-21 and further extended up to September 2022.

Central Water Commission (CWC) is the nodal organization entrusted with the task of flood forecasting & early flood warnings in the country. In order to provide more lead time to local authorities to plan evacuation of people & take other precautionary measures, CWC has developed a basin wise flood forecasting model based on rainfall-runoff. Also, the North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC), an institution established under the joint initiative of Department of Space and North Eastern Council (NEC) uses satellite data for developing early warning system on natural calamities like floods.  In addition, Disaster Management Division, Ministry of Home Affairs has issued guidelines on Management of Floods in January, 2008,  Management of Urban Flooding in September, 2010 and Management of Landslides and Snow Avalanches in June, 2009 and issued a National Disaster Management Plan in which action to be taken on various calamities, including floods and landslide, has been outlined.

(d)& (e)  At present, there is no proposal to introduce any Bill on solution for flood and erosion in NER, as per inputs received from the Ministry of Jal Shakti.

Annexure-I

Details of damages as reported by Disaster Management Division (Ministry of Home Affairs) due to hydrometeorological calamities during the year 2022-23 (As on 12.07.2022)*

*  Figures are provisional.

** Less than 100 Ha.

This information was given by Minister of Development of North Eastern Region Shri G. Kishan Reddy in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.