December 2, 2015
Mumtaz Sanghamita speaks in Lok Sabha about the prevailing flood situation in the country
Respected Deputy-Speaker, Sir, I am very much thankful to you for giving me few minutes to speak on this important issue. First of all, I, on my behalf and on behalf of my Party, would like to express my deepest sympathy to our desh basi of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry.
Members have said about the flood situation and the recurrent flood situation in so many places including my State West Bengal. We suffer from it each year. This year, as everybody knows, the flood had affected 12 districts of West Bengal having much of monetary, crop, human and cattle losses. The same thing is happening in other parts of the country also. Now the time has come, as all of us have said, when we have to do something.
We know it very-well that at any time it may come but whenever it comes we should fight against it. Sometimes we succeed fully but sometimes we fail to succeed fully in rescuing everybody. We are still depending on the relief either from the State or from the Centre. But it cannot meet our requirements to the fullest extent possible. We ask for Rs. 6000 crore from the Central Government but we got a meagre amount till date.
Our great hon. leader, Kumari Mamata Banerjee has also tackled the flood situation very tactfully and without much loss. It is my request now, as has been mentioned by my other friends, that we should really think seriously as to how we can tackle the natural calamities. We cannot prevent the natural calamities but we can foresee them. We should involve scientists to find out why such calamities are happening and as to how we can forecast the natural calamities.
I would also request the Central Government to erect flood shelters and also crop shelters during the flood season which are urgently needed. These can be done through the projects of the Central Government. That is my request. The Government should also undertake serious research on these natural calamities. In West Bengal, floods are happening usually due to overflowing of dams and sometimes due to heavy rainfall. So, we should discuss about those things. We should also make a separate Commission or whatever it is to tackle the flood situation in the country.
Thank you.
