Assam Chief Minister seeks Centre's assistance for the state

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal Saturday sought enhanced assistance to the people affected by natural calamities like floods, which hit the state every year.

Addressing the 5th governing council meeting of the NITI Aayog, he raised key issues pertinent to the state's development and underlined the future roadmap for state and central government's partnership. He stressed on the need for effective management of flood and erosion problems afflicting a large part of Assam every year, a state government release said.

Sonowal pointed out that the norms of relief and rehabilitation provided to the flood-affected people according to Disaster Relief Fund guidelines are low and sought its increase substantially. He also vouched for NITI Aayog's intervention to include river erosion in the admissible list of calamities for funding under National Disaster Relief Fund or State Disaster Relief Fund so that quick and timely steps can be taken to counter erosion.

Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for setting up a high-level committee for proper management of water resources in the Northeastern region under the chairmanship Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog, Sonowal said suggestions made in the draft report of the committee would go a long way in finding a permanent solution to the problems of flood and erosion in Assam.

READ | Goal To Make India A 5 Trillion Dollar Economy By 2024, Is Challenging, But Can Surely Be Achieved': Here Are The Highlights Of PM Modi’s Opening Remarks At The NITI Aayog Meet

The chief minister also informed that the state government had made remarkable progress in addressing the needs of the seven selected districts of the state and an amount of Rs 28 crore had been kept in state budget of current financial year for taking up new activities in those districts.

He said in order to achieve Prime Minister Modi's target of doubling the farmers' income by 2022 in the state, satisfactory results were showed by the 'Chief Minister's Samagra Gramya Unnayan Yojana' that was launched by the state government in 2017.

READ | Here Is The 5-point Agenda Of The First NITI Aayog Meet Chaired By PM Modi In Second Term

The Prime Minister chaired the NITI Aayog governing council's meeting for the first time after taking office for the second term. The meeting addressed broad range of issues like drought, farmer distress and rain-water harvesting. The Governing Council includes ministers of Finance, Home, Defence, Agriculture, Commerce and Rural Development, besides state chief ministers and Niti Aayog vice chairman, CEO and members. In addition, the meeting was also attended by lieutenant governors of union territories, several union ministers and senior government officials.