Guwahati, April 27: Incessant rainfall over the past few days has set alarm bells ringing, with Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today sounding a wake-up call to the district commissioners.
The government has also chalked out a contingency plan in the event of any untoward incident.
The chief minister today met the chief secretary as well as officials of the water resources, irrigation, veterinary, agriculture, education, excise and revenue departments to discuss the situation. He has given a fortnight’s time for the deputy commissioners to come up with an action plan to tackle flood in vulnerable areas of their districts.
However, he has warned them to keep educational institutions out of the purview of flood-control measures. The chief minister made it clear that all efforts should be made to avoid any disturbance to students. The meeting decided that schools and colleges would be the last resort for relief camps.
The state had been free of floods for the past two years. In fact, several parts of the state witnessed severe drought last year.
Water resources minister Bharat Narah said the meeting discussed preparations to tackle flood since the state had been free of floods for the past two years.
The deputy commissioners, he said, have been asked to identify the vulnerable areas, ensure availability of boats, fodder, medicines and places to set up relief camps as well as detect measures to send relief to vulnerable areas.
That the government has taken the threat of flood seriously is also borne by the fact that the water resources department has now separately convened a meeting of its officers from all over the state for a pre-monsoon drill on May 3.
“It is a routine meeting, but this time around we want to prepare ourselves for anything that might come up. Besides taking stock, we will also ask them to be ready with gunny bags, cement bags and ropes which are widely used in flood control activities. We will also direct them to clean up the embankments and bunds so that relief operations can be carried out smoothly,” Narah added.
