New Delhi, Jul 3 (UNI) In a high level meeting to review preparedness of measures to deal with monsoon and flood situation in major flood prone river basins in the country, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday directed the officials to develop a well planned scheme to reduce flooding and minimize the loss to property and lives.
He also asked for action on following up on priority areas to provide permanent solutions to the perennial flood problems in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and North Eastern states.
While emphasizing on better coordination among agencies to make a permanent system for flood forecasting and rise in water levels in major catchment zones, the Home Minister also directed the Jal Shakti Ministry and Central Water Commission (CWC) to review and assess data on real storage capacity of major dams with a view to ensure timely releases of water and prevention of floods.
During the meeting, Department of Water Resources Secretary 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 such as flood plain zoning, flood forecasting and way forward to mitigate effect of floods in Ganga and Brahmaputra Basins.
Officials from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and India Meteorological Department (IMD) also made presentations.
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, a Home Ministry official said.
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, he added.
The meeting was also attended by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai and senior officials of concerned Ministries and Agencies.
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