Modi offers Rs23.5B aid for flood-hit states in NE

guwahati — Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a total package of Rs23.5 billion for all north eastern states for mitigating the impact of floods in short and long term basis.

Modi is on a day-long visit to Guwahati where he will meet the chief ministers of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland and with respective Cabinets to take stock of the latest flood situation.

“The prime minister today announced Rs23.5 billion total flood package for the north eastern states,” Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Giving a breakup, Sarma said, “The prime minister has announced a special package of Rs20 billion for all the north eastern states for relief and rehabilitation of flood damage.”

The exact share of different states will be worked out in coming days and will be announced accordingly, he added.

In addition to that, the prime minister has announced a Rs1 billion corpus for setting up a research project to study the Brahmaputra and its role in creating devastating flood, Sarma said.

“This project will have a high power committee comprising scientists, researchers, engineers. They will study the river and suggest remedies to tackle floods. This will be long term project,” he added.

Regarding Assam, the state finance minister said the prime minister announced release of Rs2.5 billion immediately to carry out relief and rehabilitation. “The PM had released Rs3 billion in June. The Rs2.5 billion announced on Tuesday was in addition to the amount released in June,” Sarma said.