Assam losing 8,000 hectares every year due to erosion: Gogoi

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said the state is losing around 8,000 hectares of land every year due to heavy erosion by Brahmaputra river. Attending a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GOM), headed by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar at New Delhi, to consider inclusion of erosion as a natural calamity, the chief minister highlighted the problems faced by the state due to erosion.[caption id=“attachment_1050943” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. PTI[/caption] According to an official release, Gogoi said that around 8,000 hectares of land are going to the river bed every year. The loss of land due to erosion is a permanent one and the affected people have nowhere to go once the flood water recedes, he added. Gogoi argued for taking up the erosion protection schemes under financial assistance from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). “The committee after deliberation, decided that loss of land due to erosion occurring after floods should be examined for change of the norms for compensation for loss of land during floods under NDRF/SDRF,” the statement said. The meeting was also attended by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Union DONER Minister P Ghatowar and Union Minister for Water Resources Harish Rawat. Earlier, the GOM was formed at the initiative of Gogoi. PTI