Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi has called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce a Rs 10,000-crore special package for Assam following the recent floods. He said the package is necessary to compensate people for their financial losses and repair the extensive damage to rural infrastructure.
Gogoi said the funds should be used to restore roads, shops, schools and drinking water infrastructure affected by the floods. The Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha made the demand through a post on social media platform X.
The Congress leader also criticised the Centre over the handling of the PM CARES Fund. Referring to the fund’s latest audited report, Gogoi claimed that its corpus stood at Rs 8,452 crore and that nearly 93 per cent of the amount was kept in fixed deposits. He further alleged that only Rs 87.85 lakh was spent from the fund during 2024-25.
Gogoi questioned why the PM CARES Fund did not provide assistance to Assam while the state was dealing with severe flooding. He said the fund was created to mobilise resources from different sources and respond to major emergencies, but Assam still had to depend on donations from organisations and individuals.
Meanwhile, the Centre has sanctioned Rs 379.35 crore to Assam as the first instalment under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). Gogoi, however, said the amount was not enough to meet the scale of losses caused by the floods.
He has urged the Centre to provide additional financial support to the state so that affected families can recover from their losses and damaged infrastructure can be restored.
