Central team to assess Gujarat flood damage; teams may visit other states too

The Ministry of Home Affairs has constituted an inter-ministerial team to assess the damage caused by rainfall and floods in Gujarat. The team will soon visit the districts of Gujarat affected by flood, which left at least 25 people dead on August 26 and 27.

Heavy to extremely heavy rainfall, caused by a deep depression formed over Rajasthan and Gujarat, hit Gujarat between August 25 and 30. Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were also affected by this rainfall.

Several states affected

The MHA has constituted an inter-ministerial central team (IMCT) led by the executive director of the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) to assess the damage caused by rainfall and floods in Gujarat, said an official statement.

Multiple spells of heavy rain, cloudbursts, and landslides have caused extensive damage in Himachal Pradesh and some other states, too, this year. The MHA is in touch with senior officers of these states, and will depute IMCT there as well, if severe damage is reported by them, the statement said.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the central government is fully committed to providing all possible help to all the affected states, the statement said.

No wait for memorandum

Following a decision taken by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in August 2019, the MHA this year constituted IMCTs, which have visited the flood- and landslide-affected states of Assam, Kerala, Mizoram, and Tripura in advance for on-spot assessment of damage without waiting for their memorandum.

The IMCT for Nagaland has also been constituted, which will visit the affected areas of the state shortly.

In the past, the IMCT used to visit the disaster-affected states only after the receipt of a memorandum from the state government, the statement said.

(With agency inputs)