Centre steps in with Rs 600 crore, deploys 107 disaster relief teams
Flood affected villagers move on a banana raft to collect drinking water at Murkata village, Guwahati, Assam (AP Photo/Anupam Nath) Flood affected villagers move on a banana raft to collect drinking water at Murkata village, Guwahati, Assam (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
The Centre has so far released Rs 639 crore to flood-affected states from the State Disaster Relief Fund and Rs 25 crore from the National Disaster Relief Fund. As many as 107 NDRF teams have been deployed in Bihar, Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP and Tripura. Each NDRF team includes 47 rescue and relief workers. These include teams that have been pre-positioned at 75 locations. Assam has 7 teams while Bihar has 10 teams.
The Prime Minister’s Office has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs not to wait for a memorandum from flood-affected states and immediately send a central team for assessment. Usually, it is after receiving such a memorandum that the Centre sends out a team with representatives from the home, water resources, agriculture and irrigation ministries/departments.
The assessment of the central team forms the basis of granting central funds from the Centre, officials said. In a recent communication, PMO has not only asked the home ministry not to wait for a report from the states but also urged the ministry’s disaster management authority to immediately dispatch a central team headed by a joint secretary, officials added” “We are currently doing it for states in the Northeast but soon plan to extend it to others affected with floods,” said a home ministry official. PM Narendra Modi said he has spoken to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal about the flood situation.
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