Over the years, floods have been the common news for Assam — only the difference is the number of districts affected and the extent of the calamities. Obviously, floods are caused by rains of the monsoon. But that doesn’t mean that only the monsoon should be blamed for the floods. The floods are also very much due to the failure of the state governments to come up with a strategy to reduce the effect.

The state has always preferred on embankments as a policy to check the floods. However, this old strategy being followed from the 1950s has never worked properly to check the inundating waters of the river Brahmaputra. The reason is attributed to the nature of the Brahmaputra that often changes its course. Due to this, the embankments can’t be the only choice to check the overflowing waters of the river. Not only this, erosion is another issue in the state. According to reports, since 1950, more than 4.27 hectares has been eroded by the Brahmaputra and its tributaries — which is around 7.5 per cent of the state’s total land area.

Every year floods bring havoc in the state killing people and animals, destroying bridges, schools and crops — but it is surprising that the state governments have done almost nothing to check the floods. Elections come and go and political parties promise to solve the decades old problem but after coming to power, they fail to materialize a proper plan to control the floods. Way back in 2012, when the Manmohan Singh government declared a 500 crore relief package for that year’s flood in the state, the then main opposition party BJP termed it a meagre amount and demanded to declare the problem as a national calamity.

Since then many waters flowed through Brahmaputra and its tributaries, and today BJP is in power both in the state and the Centre. But, it has backtracked from the issue. Last year, Union minister of state for Jal Shakti Ratan Lal Kataria told the Parliament that there is no provision to declare any disaster, including floods, as a national problem or calamity. This was the same BJP that promised before 2016 assembly polls that it will focus on the decades old critical issue.

The Central government has announced that it will release Rs 346 crore in the first phase under the Flood Management Program to assist Assam in tackling the flood situation. However, the opposition Congress isn’t satisfied and has been criticising both the BJP governments for being non-serious about the issue. No doubt, the opposition Congress is raising an important issue — to increase the amount of flood packages. However, the Congress can’t escape from its own share of blames. The party has ruled for a long period in the state — what were the measures adopted by then Congress governments to tackle floods? The answer is in the negative — otherwise the flood situation of Assam would have been improved and visible to everyone.

A report of The Scroll in 2018 says that Assam has received no assistance from the Centre between 2014-18. This is a startling report — as floods continue to take place during all these years but the state received no funds. Not only this, Assam government has failed to utilize the disaster relief fund given last year by the Centre, according to a report of the Indian Express this year. In fact, Assam has diverted the disaster funds into general account; although transferred it back. The report also says that due to which the Centre may not provide more aid by quoting an unnamed senior official of the Central government — as funds are not utilized.

Both the reports only confirm the non-seriousness of the Assam government — both Congress and BJP ruled ones. After all, Congress was in power in the state between 2014-16 while BJP came to power in 2016. It is easy to accuse the Centre but if the funds given to the state aren’t properly utilized, then obviously it is the state government which has to take the responsibility. It is also true that issue of floods can’t be solved only by the Assam government because the geography of Brahmaputra and its tributaries are not limited to only Assam — it includes China controlled Tibet, Bhutan, Myanmar and other neighbouring states like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya. So, obviously the Centre has to step in if the decades old flood situation of Assam is to be controlled.

On the other hand, there is a surge of cases of Covid-19 in the state — which is also creating a hurdle in flood relief work as extra adequate measures are also required to prevent the virus. Also, the government has to ensure proper social distancing measures in the relief camps — which is again a huge task. Although, the good thing is that Assam has been doing quite well nationally in terms of testing per million people — it is ranked 11th. However, when it comes to the northeast, the state despite having more cases than Manipur, Tripura and Sikkim is behind these states in testing per million people.

Assam is presently battling on two fronts — the surge of Coronavirus and the devastating floods. This is actually a herculean task for the Assam government. The most sad story is that most of India’s mainstream media have generally turned a blind eye, as usual, to Assam at this very critical point of time — when it needs the utmost help from the media to make aware of the woes of Assam to the whole nation. Actually, it is time for everyone, particularly for the Central government, to focus on Assam. (IPA Service)