AHMEDABAD: Gujarat is facing yet another threat of heavy rainfall and floods with a cyclonic storm centred 400 kilometres off Porbandar in the Arabian Sea fast advancing towards the Saurashtra coast on Friday.

According to local weather bureau chief J.M. Motwal, the depression had turned into a strong cyclonic storm and was moving in a northwest direction and was likely to hit the Saurashtra coast near Jamnagar over the next 48 hours.

The sea has already turned rough and fishermen have been advised against venturing into the high seas for the next two days. The state government has also hoisted danger signals at different ports across the Kutch-Saurashtra coast and has alerted the relief and rescue machinery for any eventuality. Many parts of Kutch district received heavy rainfall on Friday and the weather bureau has forecast widespread heavy to very heavy rainfall in the Kutch-Saurashtra region and other parts of Gujarat in the next two days.

The fresh threat has come even before Gujarat had recovered from the damages caused by the last round of heavy floods in the south and central regions, particularly Surat.

Union Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy, who visited the flood-affected areas of Surat on Friday, told media persons that the Centre had not yet received any proposal from the state government for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Surat. "I am saying this with full responsibility as the Urban Development Minister that the Centre has not received even a paper from the state government asking for assistance for Surat," he said.

Describing the Surat floods as "man-made" caused by the "negligence or miscalculations" by the state government, Mr. Reddy said the Centre would be prepared to consider assistance if any concrete proposal was submitted.

Both Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Revenue Minister Kaushik Patel, told the state Assembly during the two-day monsoon session earlier this week that the Centre had not extended any help to the state despite the unprecedented floods that caused damages to the tune of over Rs. 22,000 crores to the state. Mr. Patel even alleged that though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, after his visit to Surat during the floods had announced an immediate assistance of Rs. 500 crores, "not a penny has so far been released to the state from the Centre."

Congress members had raised strong objections to the accusation and leader of the opposition Arjun Modhvadia, pointed out that even during the floods last year, the state government could spend only about Rs. 300 crores from the Rs. 500 crores assistance provided by the Centre and the unutilised amount had to be returned to the central exchequer for want of proper rehabilitation schemes.

During the last three days, central ministers had been visiting Surat to assess the situation and announced assistance from their respective departments directly to the flood affected. State Congress spokesman Shaktisinh Gohil, said in Ahmedabad, that the visits of union ministers, the Minister of State for Poverty Alleviation of the Urban Poor, Kumari Selja, the Minister of State for Banking and Finance, Pawan Kumar Bansal, and Mr. Reddy were organised at the instance of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, to reach the people directly since the BJP government in the state had failed to come to the aid of flood victims.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail