Gogoi seeks Rs.1,000 crore central package for flood-hit Assam

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi Friday sought a special package of Rs.1,000 crore from the Centre to begin rehabilitation work in the flood-hit districts, where 36 people have died and over one lakh others have been rendered homeless.

"While the overall damage is expected to be much higher, I would request that a special package of Rs. 1000 crore may be immediately provided by the central government to initiate the rehabilitation," he said in the letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Without central government's support in a big way, it will be difficult for the state government to enable adequate restoration of the damage to property and infrastructure in the affected areas, Gogoi said.

"Due to earlier waves of floods in the state during the current monsoon season, a total of 16.26 lakh people have been affected, and 2.3 lakh forced to shift to relief camps and nearly 93,000 hectare of cropped area was affected. The rescue efforts are going on and there is possibility that the death toll may rise further. It has been in fact one of the worst flash floods in Assam in recent times," he said.

Gogoi Friday made an aerial survey of the flood-ravaged areas of Goalpara and Kamrup districts but could not land there due to inclement weather. As per the itinerary, Gogoi was to visit the relief camps opened up by the district administration at Balbala, Agia and Bhalukdubi. Later, he would have taken stock of the flood situation with the officials of the district administration.

The Chief Minister in his letter to the Prime Minister also pointed out that the state government responded to the situation with all the resources at its command.

Gogoi also mentioned in the latter his plea to Home Minister Rajnath Singh to increase substantially the scale of rehabilitation assistance being provided to flood victims.