The Centre on Thursday said flood management, including erosion control, falls within the purview of state governments, and the Union government only supplements the efforts by providing technical guidance and promotional financial assistance in critical areas.
Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, said in Lok Sabha, that the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) is placed at the disposal of the state governments and the additional financial assistance is extended from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) as per the established procedure in case of disaster of severe in nature.
"Flood management, including erosion control, falls within the purview of the states. Flood management and anti-erosion schemes are formulated and implemented by the state governments concerned as per their priority," he said during Question Hour.
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The minister said under the extant guidelines of the SDRF and the NDRF, relief is provided to the affected people for the damage caused due to the notified natural calamities and not for compensation of loss suffered or claimed.
He said to strengthen the structural measures of flood management, the central government had implemented during XI and XII Plan Flood Management Programme (FMP) for providing central assistance to states for work related to river management, flood control, anti-erosion, drainage development, anti-sea erosion, which subsequently continued as a component of 'Flood Management and Border Areas Programme (FMBAP)' for 2017-18 to 2020-21, and has been further extended up to September 2022.
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So far, central assistance amounting to Rs 6,686.79 crore has been released to Union Territories and state governments under this programme since its inception, Shekhawat said.
The Union minister said the 415 completed projects under this programme have given protection to an area of around 4.99 million hectares and protected a population of about 52.21 million.
(Inputs from PTI)
