New Delhi, July 13 : Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, leading a high-level central team to supervise rescue and relief in flood-hit north-eastern states, on Thursday visited the affected districts and took stock of the situation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked the Minister of State for Home to personally supervise the relief operations and facilitate all possible help to the affected states.
The team comprises members from the National Disaster Management Authority, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, and National Disaster Response Force. It was scheduled to visit Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur from Thursday to Sunday.
At Lakhimpur in Assam, Rijiju held a meeting with state ministers and officials to review the extent of damages caused by the devastating flood and relief measures taken by the administration.
"The district administration pointed out that the release of large volume of water from the NEEPCO dam in Yazuli, Arunachal Pradesh, caused the flood crisis in Lakhimpur," an official release said.
Rijiju said the NEEPCO incharge would be directed to hold talks with the Lakhimpur Deputy Commissioner to solve the issue of excess release of water from the dam and the resultant flooding of riverine areas of Lakhimpur.
Later, Rijiju inspected the breached Ranganadi embankment which was washed away and interacted with the displaced people of Changmai village to take stock of their plight.
He assured of early repair and completion of the damaged embankment.
Rijiju also expressed concern over the damage caused to standing crops and loss of human lives.
He directed the Public Works Department to take immediate steps for temporary repair of damaged roads.
Later, reviewing the flood situation at Dhemaji district, Rijiju said that the Centre is very much concerned about the flood situation in the north-east and assured of all possible central assistance to the state governments to cope with floods.
He said sufficient emergency funds have already been released to the state governments and Rs 500 crore is available in the SDRF Fund.
He said a high-level inter-ministerial team would be deputed to the states within a month to assess the damage.
Rijiju also conducted an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas.
