Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, accompanied by Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, addresses the media at Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi airport in Guwahati on Tuesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, July 20: Promising a holistic approach to “a problem which has defied a solution for a long time”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today announced a task force to study and suggest short-term, medium-term and long-term measures to prevent floods in Assam.

“The task force will submit its report within six months and before the next Union budget,” Singh said, holding out hope that the first steps towards finding a permanent solution to floods and erosion will be taken soon.

Singh, who made an aerial survey of the flooded region in Lower Assam this morning, addressed a news conference at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International airport before he returned to Delhi.

“We need to find an abiding solution to this problem which visits the people of Assam like a scourge and causes untold devastation and distress. The people of Assam have suffered too much for too long.”

Describing the situation as “very serious”, the Prime Minister promised that “everything that needs to be done by the Centre will be done”.

He was, however, non-committal on Assam’s long-standing demand for declaring floods a national problem, merely saying, “that has to be seen”.

Perhaps aware that the Centre may not be keen on meeting the demand, the Tarun Gogoi government replaced the word “problem” with “priority” in a memorandum to the Prime Minister.

Singh did not commit himself to sanctioning Rs 2,156 crore sought by the Gogoi government — Rs 1,000 crore out of the amount immediately — for relief and rehabilitation, saying the quantum of aid would be determined after a central team visits the state to assess the loss.

Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, said the Centre has already released some amount from the Calamity Relief Fund and the Calamity Relief Contingency Fund.

“I know that this is not enough. However, I will do all that is possible to help the state and the people.”

Earlier in the day, Singh attended a meeting where he reviewed the flood situation along with Gogoi, Union minister of state for heavy industries Santosh Mohan Dev, Union minister of state for defence Bijoy Krishna Handique and senior government, police and army officials.

In the memorandum to the Prime Minister, Gogoi gave a detailed picture of the devastation caused by floods and pleaded for a grant of Rs 2,156 crore. “By the time complete reports are received from the field, the (requirement) figure will swell to Rs 3,000 crore,” he said.

The chief minister urged the Centre to “treat flood and erosion as a national priority and, accordingly, find a permanent and effective solution within a fixed timeframe”.

In the Lok Sabha, minister of state for water resources Jai Prakash Narayan today said the schemes to check erosion and manage flood have been formulated for the Northeast, which will be executed during the Tenth Five Year Plan. Yadav said the projects approved by the Planning Commission would be implemented with 90 per cent funding by the Centre.

As Singh was visiting the state, the flood scene became more grim with the Brahmaputra and its tributaries rising again over the past 24 hours.

The administration called out the army to rescue marooned people in Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts of south Assam. The turbulent Barak is expected to cross its highest water level in recent times by tonight.

In Upper and Lower Assam, lakhs of people continued to reel under the impact of devastating floods with fresh areas being inundated. The situation is reported to be the worst in Dhemaji district.