Assam CS reviews state’s preparedness for floods ahead of riny season

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 29, 2024

Assam chief secretary Ravi Kota on Monday reviewed the state-level flood preparedness of the various line departments of the Assam government at the outset of the upcoming rainy season in the state. 

In a high-level meeting held at chief secretary’s conference hall, Kota also took stock of the district-level preparedness of the district commissioners (DCs) through video conference.

Gyanendra Dev Tripathi, principal secretary, revenue & disaster management, explained the state-level preparedness for the upcoming flood season along with the stakeholders to the chief secretary and highlighted the SDRF norms and delegation of financial powers and budget provisions made for 2024-25 fiscal under the major head of account (H/A). Civic Data Lab (CDL) also made an online presentation on Intelligent Data Solutions for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDS-DRR) developed for ASDMA in response to flood resilience. 

The chief secretary suggested CDL to look into the possibilities of capturing aggregated data to address “Disaster Response” along with resilience and flood preparedness aspects.

As per the finance department notification ECF No 337800 dated August 8, 2023, power has been delegated to the DCs under Delegation of Financial Power Rules, 2022 pertaining to the issuance of administrative approval and sanction for undertaking petty/ minor works due to disaster in case of flood damage related works for the period of April 1 to October 31 every year.

Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), informed that IMD will issue the updated forecast for the state by end of the May. IMD also informed that they have been issuing 7-day predictions and are now cast for more accurate rainfall predictions.

Brahmaputra Board informed that they have nine ongoing schemes in Majuli, where 97% of the works have been completed. They have prepositioned geobags and porcupines in the project sites to meet any eventualities during the flood season.

PWD (Roads) have requested to explore the provision of taking up repairing and restoration works of roads under multiple financial windows adding certain attributes in consultation with the Finance department as existing SDRF/NDRF norms for retraction of damaged roads are not sufficient in many a times.

NHIDCL will provide details of the status of ongoing works in Dima Hasao district and steps taken on the request made by NF Railway regarding ensuring the safety of their rail tracks that might arise out of the works taken up by NHIDCL to the principal secretary, revenue & DM and chief executive officer (CEO), ASDMA within this week.

The food & civil supplies and consumer affairs department had requested the Central government to allocate 20,000 MT OMSS rice to Assam. As no communication has been received yet, the department requested the chief secretary to take up the issue with the Centre to expedite the matter.

UNICEF informed that as discussed with the CEO ASDMA, they will assist the Assam government in the assessment of 1/3rd of the model relief camps to be set up in every revenue circle on minimum assured services. These model relief camps will be monitored by all women groups. UNICEF also agreed to develop a SoP and guidelines for the conduct of Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) for the state.

The meeting was also attended by nodal officers of the various stakeholders and senior officers of all line departments of the state government.