To attract private investment to the state, Assam must protect itself from floods: Amit Shah

Union Minister for Home and Cooperation and Chairman of North Eastern Council (NEC), Amit Shah chaired a meeting in Guwahati to look at making the state of Assam Flood free on October 7. 

The meeting was attended by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma along with other senior officials of the state.

The Union Home Minister emphasized that if Assam is to develop further and attract significant private investment, then protection from floods is a key requirement. He stated that the State must come up with a long-term plan which would provide protection from floods for decades to come and not look at short-term measures alone. 

Further, the Union Home Minister stressed that the Assam government should come up with a concrete action plan to protect and rejuvenate the wetlands in the State and increase their holding capacity so that they can also act as storage reservoirs during floods. He emphasized that the State must take all steps in this regard including enacting a law for the protection of reservoirs and a mechanism for enforcement of the same.

Amit Shah also said that a meeting with the Ministry of Jal Shakti, M/o Power and the State Government will soon be convened to look at measures to include more flood moderation storage reservoirs along with Hydro Projects in Arunachal Pradesh etc. to mitigate floods in the State. 

For developing the capacity of the State Water Resource Department and ASDMA, Shah requested that apart from utilizing the services of NESAC, with which the State Government has entered into an MoU for developing flood forecasting and Early Warning Systems, the State and NESAC should also look at involving National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in capacity building of State Agencies as well.