New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Tuesday announced a support plan of Rs 11,500 crore for Bihar and an undisclosed amount for four other states that have suffered large-scale damage over the past few years due to floods and other natural disasters.
Presenting the Union Budget before the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman highlighted the plight of Bihar, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim in recent years.
“Bihar has frequently suffered from floods, many of them originating outside the country. Plans to build flood control structures in Nepal are yet to progress,” the finance minister said.
Bihar will get Rs 11,500 crore through an accelerated irrigation benefit programme and other sources to undertake flood easing projects.
This will include the Kosi-Mechi intra-state link and 20 other ongoing and new plans like barrages, river pollution abatement and irrigation projects.
In addition, Sitharaman said a survey and investigation of Kosi-related flood alleviation and irrigation projects would be undertaken.
Heavy rain in northern Bihar and Nepal this year resulted in the flooding of Kosi, inundating several districts. Floods are now a seasonal problem in Bihar.
In 2020, 7.54 lakh hectares of agricultural land were destroyed; in 2019, the damage to agricultural land was 2.61 lakh hectares; and in 2018, it was 0.34 lakh hectares.
Since Independence, floods have affected a total of 2.24 million hectares of agricultural land and precipitated losses of around Rs 768 crore between 1953 and 2017.
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Assistance for other states
The budget also proposed rehabilitation and financial assistance for Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim, though the financial outlay was not mentioned in Tuesday’s speech.
“Assam grapples with floods every year due to the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries, originating outside India. We will provide assistance to Assam for flood management and related projects,” Sitharaman said in her speech.
Floods in Assam this year affected around 6,00,000 people, killing at least 34. The state sees large-scale damage to life and property every monsoon. In 2022, 45 died and 40 lakh people were displaced.
Sitharaman also highlighted the plight of Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim, where intense rain and landslides have brought havoc. “Our government will provide assistance for reconstruction and rehabilitation through multilateral development assistance,” the minister said.
Holistic plan needed, say experts
Experts were in agreement on the country’s growing need for disaster mitigation and adaptation measures. They said climate change induced disasters were only expected to increase in coming years, and the government must focus on a holistic plan to soften its blow.
Nitin Bassi, senior programme lead, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a Delhi-based think tank and policy research institute, said: “Our analysis suggests that more than 64 percent of tehsils in India have seen an increase in the frequency of heavy rainfall days in the last decade, compared to the previous three decades. Hence, the emphasis of the Union Budget 2024 on flood mitigation in vulnerable states like Sikkim, Assam, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh is a welcome step.”
He said that increased focus was also needed to develop city-specific action plans to manage flood risk.
“Such an action plan developed by CEEW for the Thane Municipal Corporation can be a template for interventions like upscaling early water systems, replacing ageing infrastructure, and institutional capacity development to prepare and respond proactively to reduce loss and damage,” said Bassi.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)