Overview
- The Assam cabinet decided on Tuesday to recommend a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the July floods and will send a formal request to the Centre within 10 days.
- Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma framed the move as a search for the floods' root causes, reversing his August position when he had called a CBI probe unnecessary.
- The July floods killed more than 100 people and left others missing, with Sivasagar, Charaideo and Jorhat among the worst hit and extensive damage to roads, schools, embankments and farms.
- The Centre previously attributed the disaster to heavy, sustained rainfall across Assam and neighbouring states, and it alone can decide whether the CBI will take up the investigation.
- Separately, the cabinet inserted a service-rule clause to dismiss government employees found practicing polygamy under the state's Uniform Civil Code rollout, a policy step that may sharpen political debate as calls for compensation and accountability continue.