It is very unfortunate that the Government of Assam has not yet been able to rehabilitate all the persons rendered homeless by the devastating floods last year despite making tall promises during the floods. The Government was to pay rehabilitation grant of Rs 25,000 each to the families whose houses were completely damaged in floods and Rs 10,000 each to those whose houses were partially damaged, but till date, most of the affected families have not received the rehabilitation grant and they are forced to make their own arrangements. It is reported that only recently the Revenue Department issued the sanction orders and the Finance Department is still to release the money to enable the Deputy Commissioners of the affected districts to pay the rehabilitation grant to the affected families. There should not be any dearth of funds to provide the rehabilitation grant to the affected families and apparently bureaucratic red tapism and lack of proper coordination between the concerned departments of the State Government delayed the whole process. The Chief Minister should take up the matter with the concerned departments and ensure that all the concerned departments work with proper coordination to ensure timely action for the rehabilitation of the flood affected people. If the Government is really serious on mitigating the sufferings of the flood affected people, steps should have been taken to ensure that all the affected people receive the rehabilitation grant to reconstruct their damaged houses immediately after the flood water receded. It is a positive sign that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi recently directed all the Deputy Commissioners to prepare plans to face the fury of floods, but for that the Government must ensure that necessary funds should be provided to the DCs to implement the plans. The administrations of the districts often find problems in providing relief materials during floods because of paucity of funds and from time to time, the traders are reluctant in providing relief materials on credit because of the failure of the Government to ensure timely payment of the dues. Whenever floods strike a district, the District Administration normally procures rice from the godowns of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other relief materials from the market to provide relief to the affected people. Last year, even the FCI was reluctant to provide rice on credit because of the failure of the State Government to clear the outstanding dues and one cannot blame the traders for their reluctance to provide food items on credit. The Government should make available adequate funds at the disposal of the Deputy Commissioners, particularly of the flood prone districts in advance to ensure that the relief operations can be launched smoothly whenever required. Only preparation of plans to deal with floods will not mitigate the sufferings of the people if adequate funds are not available to implement the plans.