Shah chairs meeting to review preparedness to tackle flood situation in country

Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a high-level meeting here on Friday to review preparedness with respect to dealing with flood situation in major flood-prone river basins in the country during the monsoon.

He directed officials to develop a well-planned scheme to control flood and minimize the loss to property and lives.

The Union Home Minister also emphasized on better coordination between agencies and to have a permanent system for forecasting of floods and rise in water levels in major catchment zones/areas of the country.

Shah calls for providing permanent solutions to the perennial flood problems in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and North Eastern states.

The meeting was also attended by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai and senior officials of concerned ministries and agencies.

The minister also directed the Ministry of Jal Shakti and Central Water Commission (CWC) to review and assess data on the real storage capacity of major dams with a view to ensure timely releases of water and prevention of floods.

Secretary, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation made a presentation and informed about the major floods that had occurred in the country.

He also apprised about the structural measures including management of dams, reservoirs, ongoing projects in Nepal, flood protection measures and non-structural measures i.e. flood plain zoning, flood forecasting and way forward to mitigate effect of floods in Ganga and Brahmaputra Basins.

Senior Officials of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and India Meteorological Department (IMD) also made presentations.

According to an official release, A total of 40-million-hectares area in India is prone to flood in which Ganga and Brahmaputra are main flood basins and Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are most flood-prone states.

"The decisions taken in the meeting will go a long way to mitigate the sufferings of the lakhs of people in the country who have to face the fury of floods in terms of damage to their crops, property, livelihood and precious lives," it said.

( With inputs from ANI )