Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, on his first visit to New Delhi after the swearing in of the new NDA government last month, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his official residence on Wednesday and handed over a memorandum seeking revival of the flood management programme.
Sonowal said that the flood management programme was an important source of funding for taking up flood and erosion management work in the State.
Sonowal also made it clear that Assam is one of the most disaster-prone states in India.
Apart from flood being a major problem, river bank erosion also poses serious damage to the socio-economic scenario of the State. He, therefore, urged upon the PM to take steps to consider 'river erosion' as eligible calamity for consideration of assistance under NDRF/ SDRF.
Sonowal also sought Prime Minister's support in expeditious approval of multiple Externally Aided Project (EAP) proposals worth over Rs 20,000 crore in key sectors such as Urban Development, Fisheries, Roads/Bridges, Tourism, Healthcare, Power, Water Resources.
He also drew the attention of the Prime Minister for his intervention for the revival of two units – Nagaon Paper Mill, Jagiroad and Cachar Paper Mill, Silchar of Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) in Assam. He also maintained that these two units are crucial not only in providing livelihood to more than two thousand employees but also about two lakh families who supply raw materials for these units. The revival of these two units is crucial to industrialization in the State.
