Assam floods: AJP demands PM’s immediate visit, seeks national calamity status and full Central aid

The Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately visit the flood- and erosion-hit areas of Assam, declare the state’s recurring flood and erosion crisis a “national calamity”, and ensure full Central support for relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

In a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister on July 29, the regional party said Upper Assam had been severely affected by the recent floods, with several lives lost, hundreds of people reported missing or displaced, and homes, roads, embankments and other public infrastructure suffering extensive damage.

The AJP said the scale of human suffering and infrastructural losses had gone beyond what could be addressed through routine relief measures and called for urgent intervention by the Centre.

The party expressed concern that the Prime Minister had not yet visited the flood-affected areas, despite the severity of the disaster. It said previous prime ministers had conducted aerial surveys of Assam during major floods and extended relief and special financial assistance.

The memorandum also referred to special Central assistance provided to other disaster-hit states, including Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Gujarat and Bihar, and urged the Centre to extend similar support to Assam.

The AJP said the demand to recognise Assam’s annual flood and erosion crisis as a national problem was not new. It recalled that a tripartite meeting involving the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), the Assam government and the Centre had decided in 2005 to declare Assam’s flood and erosion crisis a national problem.

However, the party alleged that the decision had not been implemented in substance.

The AJP also referred to promises made by the BJP before the 2016 and 2021 Assam Assembly elections regarding a permanent solution to the flood problem, including measures to control the Brahmaputra and Barak rivers and rehabilitation schemes for flood and erosion victims.

“It is therefore a matter of serious concern that the present dispensation now cites the absence of a special category in the Disaster Management Act, 2005, as a reason to deny a status that the political establishment had earlier promised to secure,” the memorandum stated.

The party placed three key demands before the Union government: an immediate visit by the Prime Minister to assess the devastation and suffering of affected people; an amendment to the Disaster Management Act, 2005, or the issuance of an appropriate executive direction to declare Assam’s recurring flood and erosion crisis a calamity of national importance; and full financial and administrative support for relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction in the affected districts.

The AJP urged the Centre to treat the memorandum with urgency and take immediate steps to prevent further loss of life and livelihoods.