HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, May 18: Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday held a meeting through video-conferencing with his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma and appealed to the latter to facilitate smooth movement of relief goods and materials being sent by the government of Assam to the flood-hit Barak valley districts through roads passing through the hill state.
The Meghalaya chief minister is known to have assured the government of Assam of all support and cooperation from his side in the latter’s measures to ensure availability of essential commodities for the flood-affected population of Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts. It is worth noting that owing to the severance of road connectivity between the Brahmaputra and Barak valley owing to landslides and flood-water inundating the highways within Assam, majority of the relief materials to the Barak Valley are being sent through the roadways passing through the hill state of Meghalaya. The meeting was also attended by Assam Water Resource minister Pijush Hazarika, along with the chief secretaries and senior officials of both states, including all deputy commissioners of Meghalaya.
In another meeting on the current flood scenario that was chaired by the chief minister on Wednesday, directions were issued to the concerned officials and departments to ensure there was no shortage of essential commodities among the population in the flood-affected districts. The chief minister also asked the deputy commissioner of Cachar to stockpile essential food and other commodities for at least 15 days, owing to the grim flood scenario in the district. He also directed officials concerned to set-up “24×7 Control Rooms” for the three districts of Barak valley so as to ensure minute-to-minute monitoring and quickest responses to requests from flood-affected quarters. The chief minister also directed the deputy commissioner of Jorhat district to urgently dispatch essential relief materials to the worst-affected Cachar district by Thursday. Concerned at the road blockades owing to landslides and flood-water inundating national and state highways, the chief minister also directed the commissioner of Public Works Department to do the needful for smooth vehicular movements in those roads at the earliest.
The senior officials of the Army and Air Force who were present in Wednesday’s series of meetings also informed the chief minister about steps the two forces have taken in order to help the administration deal with the impact of the flood.
Senior minister of Assam Cabinet Pijush Hazarika, officials of Army, Air Force, National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and senior officials of the government were also present in Thursday’s meetings.
