PM Modi reviews flood situation of six states
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday interacted with the Chief Ministers of six states – Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala and took stock of the flood situation in the respective states and their preparedness to deal with the south-west monsoon.
The Chief Ministers of the states gave update on the flood situation, rescue efforts made in their respective States. They complimented the efforts of central agencies including NDRF teams in timely deployment and rescuing people. They also gave some suggestions for short-term and long-term measures for mitigating the effects of floods.
Prime Minister emphasized on better coordination between all central and state agencies to have a permanent system for forecasting of floods and extensive use of innovative technologies for improving forecast and warning system.
Prime Minister was quoted saying in an official statement that, "Over the past few years, our forecasting agencies like India Meteorological Department and Central Water Commission have been making concerted efforts to make better and more usable flood forecasts," and added, " They are trying to provide not only rainfall and river level forecast but also location specific forecast of inundation. There are pilot efforts underway to also use innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence to improve locations specific forecast, for which States should provide necessary information to these agencies and timely disseminate the warnings to local communities".
He mentioned that investment should be increased in localised early warning system so that people in a particular area can be provided with timely warning in case of any threatening situation such as breach of river embankment, inundation level, lightning etc. He further conveyed that States should ensure that all development and infrastructure projects must be built with resilience to withstand local disasters and to help in reducing consequential losses, the statement added.
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