Rajya Sabha

December 21, 2015

Dola Sen speaks on the prevailing flood and drought situation in the country

Dola Sen speaks on the prevailing flood and drought situation in the country

Thank you Sir for giving me the opportunity today to speak on this topic.

Flood and drought bring misery to fellow Indians. There are some states which are flood prone and some others which are drought prone. Sadly, Sir, I come from a state which is affected both by drought and flood.

West Bengal Floods

  • There were massive floods in Bengal due to Cyclone Komen in July/August
  • 100 lives lost, 61 lakh people affected
  • Damodar Valley
  1. West Bengal is located in the downstream of major rivers, including Damodar. Flood control was the primary objective for constructing various dams in the Damodar Valley area.
  2. This has taken a backseat and other activities like power generation and supply of water have taken precedence.
  • Sudden release of water: When cyclone Komen hit, in 3 days the DVC dams discharged 1.30 lakh cusecs of water.
  1. No proper monitoring mechanism: Sudden release of water led to man-made flooding and loss of many lives.
  2. DVC dams need to be upgraded so their storage capacity can meet the objective of controlling floods.
  3. Prolonged neglectcan cause another substantial disaster in the State.

 

Action Taken by State Government

  1. Recent floods + Darjeeling landslides
  2. The State Government had opening balance 610 crore in the SDRF. Additional 387 crores received from Centre.
  • Expenditure of 937 crore has already been made out of the SDRF leaving a balance of 59.82 crore only.
  1. The State Government also had spent Rs 1000 crore out of its own resources.
  • Request that NDRF funds should be released to meet the requirements of immediate relief and restoration works
  • 13 lakh hectare of agricultural land is inundated. Consider a programme of loan waiver, restructuring and grant of fresh loans to farmers

Droughts

  • West Bengal has experienced an unprecedented prolonged dry spell since September 2015
  • Lack of rainfall has adversely affected standing paddy crops in 4 districts – Burdwan, Purulia, Bankura, and West Midnapore
  • An advisory has been prepared and issuedto sensitize the farmers about the judicious use of available water for Rabi and Rabi Summer crops, and selection of right crops for coming cropping seasons,.
  • 2025 MT of Seeds for Rabi and Rabi summer crops (Boro, wheat, mustard, sunflower, groundnut, toria, sesame, maize etc) have been supplied to three districts
  • Rs 387 crore has been released from SDRF. The state’s demand was Rs 6,000 crore due to the flood and Rs 4,000 crore due to drought
  • What is the system of allotment of money, the central team goes and comes back, but the amount that is decided is not fixed in consultation with the Chief Ministers of the states
  • Irrigated land is 40% of the total farm land and hence drought affects the farmers very adversly and hence greater harmand result is reduced agricultural yields inflation rise in farmer suicides

 

Interventions:

  1. Irrigation & Waterways Department extended surface water supply utilizing the maximum Volume available from different River Valley Projects & special allocation from DVC even by purchasing water from Tenughat [Jharkhand] at a Cost of 15 Cr
  2. WBRIDD has taken care to restore all their installations & kept these functional on war footing steps.
  3. Availability of water for irrigation in DVC system is low for the coming season. Situation is under close watch. All concerned Departments ( Agriculture, Major and Minor Irrigation, Food Supplies, Power etc.) have been advised to mobilise their resources to help farmers cope with the situation

 

Functioning of National Disaster Management Authority

  • Chain of command

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is under the administration of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) but also reports directly to Home Ministry.

  • Fund utilization

In 2014-15, Budget Estimate for the NDRF ….Rs 200 crore.

Only Rs 7.11 crores spent.

Despite this, in 2015-16, NDRF allotted Rs 255 crore.

  • Infrastructure
  1. 8 of the 10 battalions of NDRF deployed across the country have no permanent buildings or facilities.
  2. In 2009, the NDRF submitted a request to the Finance Ministry for approval of 140 staff at its headquarters. The request was denied.
  • The NDMA did not offer NDRF any space in its building. NDMA (headed by the PM) has an office of 75000 sqft office while NDRF operates from a mere 4,500 sqft— approximately the size of two HIG flats combined together.
  • CAG Report: CAG in its report submitted before parliament stated that NDMA is ill prepared to handle a potential natural or manmade disaster

 

Discontinue compensation based on number of lives lost

  • When cyclone Komen hit Bengal, 2.14 lakh people were able to take shelter in 3000 relief camps across the 12 affected districts, and avail help through 633 medical camps which had been setup.
  • It is unfair to base the amount of compensation on the number of lives lost, as states which have taken pre-emptive measures will see reduced number of deaths.
  • This in turn leads to lesser compensation paid by the Central Government, while it does not take into account the amount spent by State Government in taking the pre-emptive measures.
  • No incentive to State Government from being proactive and take necessary steps to minimize loss of life/damage to land before the disaster strikes.

 

Allocation of SDRF 2015-2020 :
State                                 Amount Allotted (In Crores)
Maharashtra                 Rs 8195
Madhya Pradesh          Rs 4847
Rajasthan                       Rs 6094
West Bengal                  Rs 2853