Itanagar, July 27 (PTI): Earlier participating in the debate on the issue, Ripun Bora (Cong) said Assam was meted with a stepmotherly treatment and apathy. Assam suffered devastation and witnessed floods four times during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure but “he never visited there” and never gave a special package to the state.
“We wanted a big surgeon but you sent a pharmacist,” he said and added PM’s visit to Jammu & Kashmir and Gujarat is appreciated but “PM is not for a particular state but for whole nation,” he said. He rued that Assam has no funds to repair its bridges and embankment and added that devastation is such that 26 lakh population in 23 districts is badly impacted due to floods in the state.Bora said so far 83 persons have lost their lives in the state including 25 people who were electrocuted while crop on two lakh hectares of land has been damaged. The state has sought Rs 10,000 crore but the Centre is not paying any heed. Prasanna Acharya (BJD) which stressing that PM should also visit other flood-hit states demanded reviving river connectivity programme initiated by former Prime Minister Atal Behar Vajpayee. Dola Sen (Trinamool Cong) said it was mismanagement by the Centre which had caused floods in states. D Raja (CPI) said Centre cannot get rid of its responsibility by simply saying that floods fall in the domain of the states and urged the government should extend all possible help to states. Ravi Prakash Verma (SP) sought to know what steps were being initiated for a permanent solution for flood mitigation. T Subbarami Reddy (Cong) said Home Ministry, Finance Ministry and Water Resources Ministry should work out a permanent solution for floods. Vijila Sathyanath (AIADMK) and Shiv Pratap Shukla and Tiruchi Siva (DMK) demanded that a plan to link rivers should be revived for a permanent solution to floods.
Ashok Sidharth (BSP) expressed concern that wild animals were losing their lives due to floods, while Ritabrata Banerjee (CPI-M) asked whether the government was contemplating an international treaty to monitor Brahmaputra as it fell in the domain of four nations - India, China, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
