New Delhi: People ‘die’ in floods, they are not ‘murdered’, Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan corrected MP Gaurav Gogoi’s (Cong) Hindi when he said: “750 people have been murdered (hatya hui) in the floods.”
Ms Mahajan immediately pointed out that the term should be “mrityu (death)”.
Like every year, Assam suffered the scourge of the floods this year too with immense losses to human lives, cattle, and property. Gogoi, who belongs to Assam, thanked the speaker for correcting his Hindi. Mr Gogoi was initiating the discussion on a calling attention motion on floods. He alleged that the government was in deep slumber like the mythological “Kumbh-karan” and failed to take quick action during floods. He said as per a revised formula, the financial liability of the states has increased in tackling floods.
He also claimed that the Central government has ignored its responsibility and even the CAG has criticised the flood management programme. The government has proposed to fund a permanent solution to floods in the Northeast, including Assam, and a '100 crore has been earmarked to find a solution. Replying to a calling attention motion on the problem of floods in various parts of the country, minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju also rejected claims of Opposition that the government has failed to respond to the “annual feature” of floods in time and gives little financial assistance to states to deal with the calamity.
