GUWAHATI: BJP MLA from Ranganadi constituency, Rishiraj Hazarika, has raised questions over the manual flood warning system of North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), asserting that it provides little or no time for people living downstream areas to move to safer locations before water is released.
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Speaking in the Assam Assembly, Hazarika said that while NHPC uses a centralised flood warning system to alert downstream residents, NEEPCO continues to rely on a manual alarm system, resulting in delayed warnings.
“Through the Assembly, we want NEEPCO to centrally alarm people before the floodgates are opened. These will help people move to safer places,” the legislator said.
Describing Ranganadi and Naoboicha as among Assam's worst flood-affected areas, Hazarika also alleged that NEEPCO has not undertaken any significant CSR activities in the region over the past two to three decades.
“They do CSR activities in other parts of Assam and the Northeast, and we have no objection to that. But since Ranganadi and Naoboicha are the most flood affected regions, I want a large portion of the CSR activities to be done here, be it for setting up river embankments,” Hazarika said.
Responding to the concerns, Water Resources Minister Susanta Borgohain assured the legislator that he had already taken up the matter of central alarm system with the district administration and it will be done soon.
On the matter of CSR, the minister said it is beyond the domain of his department, asking the legislator to reach out to the concerned departments who deal with such matter.
In his intervention, Assembly Speaker Ranjeet Kumar Dass apprised the Ranganadi MLA that it is the deputy commissioner of that district that requests CSR activities or funds from companies.
Dass suggested the MLA to write a letter to NEEPCO, through the deputy commissioner.
The issue comes weeks after a flash flood inundated the NEEPCO residential colony at the Panyor Lower Hydroelectric Power Station in Arunachal Pradesh's Keyi Panyor district on June 24, triggering flooding in downstream areas of Assam. NEEPCO had said that the floods were caused by highly localised heavy rainfall and was not linked to the operation of the hydropower project.