Congress has claimed that the district administration and the Disaster Management Department had failed to issue timely flood warnings in the flood-ravaged districts of Upper Assam.
In a press statement, the opposition party said a written reply by the Central Government to a question raised on by Jorhat MP Gaurav Gogoi, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and President of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), has exposed the hollow claims and systemic failure of the State Government and the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA).
Answering Unstarred Question No. 2909 raised by MP Gogoi, Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr. Jitendra Singh, stated in the Lok Sabha that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) provides Near Real-Time flood monitoring services for the Brahmaputra basin. Satellite-based flood inundation maps and data are transmitted directly to ASDMA within a turnaround time of just 5 to 6 hours after acquiring satellite data.
According to details shared by the Union Minister, ISRO monitors flood conditions using highly precise and high-resolution satellites. For this purpose, EOS-04 (RISAT-1A) microwave satellite, Resourcesat 2/2A, Cartosat-2E, and Cartosat-3 (with up to 0.28 m spatial resolution) satellites are deployed. Utilizing this advanced technology, ISRO provided 45 flood inundation maps during the 2025 monsoon season and 33 maps during the 2026 monsoon season (up to July 28) to ASDMA. Furthermore, all these datasets are published on the National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM) and Bhuvan portals for visualization at the district and sub-district levels, alongside initiatives to generate district-level flood reports using sensor-specific processing algorithms.
Questioning the State Government on social media platform ‘X’, MP Gaurav Gogoi asked why the public in the three Upper Assam districts was not alerted in time despite ISRO making precise flood data available to ASDMA so rapidly.
Gogoi noted that when Sivasagar district was struck by flash floods on July 19, the District Commissioner stated that the district administration had barely three hours to respond, with no prior official warning issued. He questioned why ASDMA failed to pass on the available satellite flood data and inundation maps to the district administration or local residents on the ground if it received them within 5 to 6 hours from ISRO.
Gogoi alleged that the contradiction between the Central Government’s response and the district administration’s reality proves that ASDMA and the State Government completely failed to capitalize on ISRO’s advanced scientific warning system. Because the space agency’s warnings remained trapped in bureaucratic delays at state offices, no timely alerts were issued, forcing thousands of helpless residents in Upper Assam to bear the brunt of the devastation.
Due to the lack of timely warnings, people had no time to move their livestock, household goods, and belongings to safe locations.
Gogoi demanded that the government explain why and due to whose lapse the available flood monitoring data failed to result in timely alerts and ground preparedness.
State govt ignored ISRO’s flood warnings for 3 Upper Assam districts: Cong
