Congress Working Committee member Veerappa Moily has been in charge of the Congress party in Assam for several months now. But the veteran party leader is not aware that the Congress-led Government in the state has been tackling floods only on an “ad-hoc” basis.“Mere strengthening of embankments is not enough. Tackling floods in Assam definitely requires a multi-pronged approach,” is what Moily said when he was asked to comment on Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s recent admission that the state Government’s approach towards tackling floods was only an “ad-hoc” one.It was on June 18 that Gogoi had stated in a press conference here that his Government did not have a long-term strategy to tackle floods and was just pursuing an ad-hoc policy. Gogoi had also announced the establishment of a permanent Flood Management Commission, a promise he had made on September 10 last year as well. Moily also admitted that he was ignorant of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s failure to visit Majuli as promised thrice by the latter over the past two years.“I do not know about it (the PM’s proposed visits to Majuli). But I will definitely find out what happened if at all he had made such promises,” Moily said. Moily also parried a question on the devastating flash flood in Lakhimpur district in eastern Assam caused due to sudden water release from a hydro-electric project dam in Arunachal Pradesh earlier this month. “It is an inter-state issue,” he said. Moily on Thursday visited a few areas in Morigaon district affected by erosion and floods.
