Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty 
New Delhi: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech today in parliament, mentioned the Assam floods.
However, she did not give out details of her government’s plans to address the issue of floods and merely said that the Centre is aware of Assam’s annual floods caused by the Brahmaputra, and will provide “assistance” to address it.
This was different from how she tackled the floods in poll-bound Bihar in the same speech.
The problem of recurring floods is most likely the oldest natural disaster in Assam, but the finance minister hesitated little in equating it with that of the natural crises in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim where too, she said “assistance” would be provided by the Centre during the 2024-25 fiscal year. In these states, the annual flood-like situation is a recent phenomenon, primarily hinging on faulty development policies of a series of state governments. In Assam though, the situation demands a better research-based solution and a serious intent and commitment by the political class, particularly at New Delhi, to mitigate it in all ways possible.
Sitharaman, though, conveniently tried to put the entire blame of Assam floods on factors that are “outside the country”. She named upstream countries like Nepal and China for the swelling of the transboundary rivers, Kosi (in Bihar) and Brahmaputra (in Assam) which go on to create havoc in downstream areas like Bihar and Assam.
It is not that there is no truth in her statement. But does that mean that the government must wash its own hands off the matter as waters sweep away the homes and hearths of lakhs of people?
Also read: As Assam Reels Under Floods, Political Sparring Takes Centre Stage
Indirectly, the minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre today hinted that not much beyond some financial “assistance” should be expected of the Centre during this financial year by the people of Assam – however much the annual problem affects their lives. This only indicates that though her budget speech began as a blueprint for the Narendra Modi regime’s ambitious Viksit Bharat (developed India) agenda, tackling Assam’s perennial flood problem is not a primary component of it.
Still, on the mere mention of central ‘assistance’ to the Assam floods, Union ports, shipping and waterways minister and former Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, sitting on the front row of the treasury benches in the Lok Sabha, could be seen smiling broadly. This is likely because that one sentence from New Delhi will go a long way in calming agitated public back home, particularly in his parliamentary constituency Dibrugarh.
This year, the Dibrugarh city saw flood waters like never before. On visiting flood-affected areas in and around Dibrugarh, Sonowal had a chance to witness public disappointment at his party’s governments — both at the Centre and the state — having done precious little.
No wonder then, this July 20, Sonowal threw a new googly at people. He told reporters in Guwahati that the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Guwahati would study the reasons of “artificial flood” of the Dibrugarh city to prepare a “masterplan” for the government to come up with “corrective measures” to manage its sewage and drainage system.
Sitharaman’s mention of ‘assistance’ to Assam floods has thus given Sonowal reason to smile.
For his party colleagues in Assam too, including the chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Sitharaman’s mention can come in handy. Just three days ago, video clips of the Sarma government’s water resources minister Pijush Hazarika being forced to leave a flood inspection site in the Barak Valley due to local people’s anger had gone viral on social media.
What can be of particular help is that the Union budget, quite cleverly, has not demarcated a particular sum for any flood affected state, and has instead pledged a cumulative total of Rs 11,500 crore financial assistance to all.
Previous plans of Modi govt on Assam floods
Sonowal must be reminded of the year 2017. On a nippy January morning that year, Sonowal, as the sitting chief minister of Assam, had flagged off a “survey” to be conducted by a set of engineers at Dibrugarh. It was in keeping with the Union surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari’s big ticket announcement in Assam then to tackle the annual floods.
Gadkari, then the surface transport minister in the Modi government, had claimed that the Assam’s flood issue could be sorted by dredging the Brahmaputra, and the siltation pulled out of it mechanically would be utilised to build a “Brahmaputra Highway” along the two sides of the river. It would be a massive 1,300-km long expressway!
Among Assam’s flood-affected lot, the mood it kicked up was of both astonishment and jubilation. After all, tackling the flood issue was an important part of the BJP’s ‘Vision document – 2016-2025’. Many felt the ’56 inch chest’ of prime minister Modi was not for nothing – and that indeed, Modi hai to mumkin hai (if there is Modi there is a way)!
Also read: This Budget Was a Tacit Acknowledgment of Government’s Failures – But Had No Course Correction
Among BJP’s 2016 poll promises were “erecting permanent transit camps near flood-prone areas”, plans for “designing and developing world class infrastructure with due consideration of natural disasters like floods and earthquakes” and “dredging the bed of Brahmaputra from Sadiya (on the Arunachal Pradesh border) to Dhubri (on the Bangladesh border)”. It also promised that the “problem of siltation will be identified and addressed at the root”. That vision document played a role in raising public hope, and played a role in ushering in the first BJP-led government in the state in 2016.
Speaking in Guwahati in April 2017, when Gadkari had said, “This 1,300 km-long express highway is likely to incur an investment of Rs 40,000 crore,” public hope had similarly soared.
Strangely, by the time the next Union budget came, only Rs 100 crore was announced to initiate a ‘feasibility study’ on the project in Assam. That was the last Assam’s public heard of that ambitious highway project.
No wonder then that the ‘survey’ for that project flagged off by Sonowal with much pomp in Dibrugarh went cold. As did people’s hopes.
In August 2017, after much hullabaloo by the opposition about Prime Minister Narendra Modi not visiting Assam during the floods, he did succumb to that pressure, and showed up.
Since then, though, every year, that demand for Modi’s visit to Assam arises with the surging flood waters, both from the opposition benches and members of public, but Modi has remained the Godot who they perpetually wait for — much like in Manipur for the last one year.
From time to time though, the public gets to know through local media that the prime minister “spoke to the chief minister” about the Assam floods. The recent such occurrence was yesterday. Sarma paid a visit to Modi in New Delhi and “apprised” him of the flood situation.
Himanta Biswa Sarma and Narendra Modi. Photo: X/@PMOIndia
A day later, almost like a last minute addition, we hear Sitharaman promising central “assistance” to Assam floods without spelling out what exactly the Centre would do and how much of the Rs 11,500-crore allocation Assam could get.