Amit Shah-led panel approves ₹4,645 crore in 9 disaster affected states

NEW new delhi: A high-ranking citizens committee, led by unification place minister Amit Shah, has approved a number of mitigation, recovery and reconstruction projects with a total outlay of ₹4,645.6 crore in the wake of climate related events that have caused damage in various states, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) said on Wednesday.The projects, MHA said in a statement, will benefit nine states, including Assam, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. “The committee, comprising of Union finance and agriculture ministers, and vice chairman NITI Aayog as members considered the proposal for financial assistance to the states from National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF),” the ministry said in a statement.In Assam, the committee has approved the restoration and rejuvenation of wetlands plan of ₹692.05 crore.“The implementation of this project will enhance wetland capacity, create flood storage, increase flood resilience, protect the aquatic environment and will help in economic growth through improved fisheries infrastructure. Out of total approved outlay of ₹692.05 crore for the project, central share will be ₹519.04 crore (75%) and state’s share will be ₹173.01 crore (25%). This includes projects for mitigation activities towards restoration and rejuvenation of 24 distinct wetlands of nine districts of the Assam spread across the Brahmaputra river system. Through a number of structural and other measures, this project in Assam will enhance water retention capacity of wetlands/Beels and will help mitigate risk of flooding and erosion,” the statement said.The committee also approved the Urban Flood Risk Management Programme (UFRMP) Phase-2 for 11 cities, viz. Bhopal, Bhubhaneshwar, Guwahati, Jaipur, Kanpur, Patna, Raipur, Trivandrum, Vishakhapatnam, Indore and Lucknow, with a total outlay of ₹2,444.42 crore to be funded from the NDMF.“The selection of these 11 cities is on the basis of their status of being most populous cities or state capitals, primarily prone to floods, as well as consideration of other physical, environmental, socio-economic and hydro-meteorological factors. The programme will complement the states in mitigating risk of urban flooding in their cities through uniform structural and non-structural intervention measures. The funding pattern will be on cost-sharing between the Centre and states as per NDMF guidelines i.e 90% from Centre and 10% from (respective) state,” the statement said.Additionally, MHA said the government had released ₹4,412.5 crore from the State Disaster Mitigation Fund (SDMF) to 21 States and ₹372.09 crore from National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) to nine states.