GUWAHATI: Four more people were reported dead in Barpeta, Morigaon and South Salmara districts on Wednesday, taking the death toll of the floods to 73 even as the water level of the Brahmaputra river fell below the danger mark. In the light of the fact that hundreds have started returning home from the relief camps, chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday met Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and sought the release of the outstanding central share of Rs 1,138 crore under the Flood Management Programme (FMP).On Tuesday, Sonowal had sought a special package from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rebuild 5,000 km of old embankments, damage to which was a major cause behind the devastating deluge.According to the state disaster management authority, the number of inmates in relief camps has come down to a little more than 8,000 from more than 13,000 on Tuesday.Lauding the finance minister for his initiative that paved the way for the clearance of two externally aided projects - Citizen Centric Services Delivery Project and Public Finance Reforms Project - Sonowal also pleaded Jaitley for his intervention in securing funding of Rs 1,400 crore for the bridge connecting North and South Guwahati from the New Development Bank (BRICS Bank).The state government has already submitted a proposal for the bridge to the bank The chief minister also apprised the finance minister about the negotiations going on with the World Bank for funding of the $300 million Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project "Sonowal requested the finance minister to help the state by all possible means to tackle the unprecedented and unusually long wave of floods this year. In this context, the chief minister sought the intervention of the finance minister for releasing central share of Rs 1,138 crore under the Flood Management Programme (FMP) during the 11th and 12th Five Year Plans," the CM's office said. The chief minister's office also said the state has already released its share against 141 schemes under the FMP.Expressing his deep gratitude to the finance minister for extending support during the GST implementation in Assam, Sonowal urged him not to restrict the refund of CGST/IGST incentives to industries to 58 per cent, but to continue with the earlier policy of 100 per cent duties and taxes as during the last three years of the 14th Finance Commission Award and under the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP), 2007."We are in the third year of the 14th FC Award and 100 per cent refund has been given in the past three years. Thus, restricting the refund to industries to 58 per cent is not appropriate," Sonowal added.He also urged the finance minister to intervene in the formulation of a New Industrial Policy on the lines of the NEIIPP, 2007, to maintain the flow of investment in Assam and the North East as a whole. More than Rs 6,500 crore has poured into the state during the first 11 months of the present dispensation at Dispur under NEIIPP, 2007, he added.

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