Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari has called for a new comprehensive law to deal with the issue of desilting of rivers. Addressing the meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament attached to his Ministry in New Delhi today on the issue of flood management the Minister said this new law will be framed in consultation with States. Expressing concern on the plight of people of the flood prone areas of the country, Shri Gadkari said there is an urgent need to effectively meet the challenges of flood in the country. The Minister was of the opinion that measure like inter linking of rivers and construction of check dams should also be given priority to mitigate the flood fury. Shri Gadkari said, “We have to strengthened and improve our flood forecasting network”. Referring to the outcome of the Multi-Modal Ensemble (MME) and Global Forecast System (GFS) of flood forecasting the Minister said the lead time of advisory forecast is proposed to be increased to five to seven days. The Minister informed the members that inundation forecast for Mahanadi Delta in Odisha using Digital Elevation Model of 0.5m contour interval has been attempted with limited data. He said the results are under verification by State Government and the same is likely to be made functional by 2018. Shri Gadkari said the see surge and radar data are to be integrated with the Inundation Forecast Model. Similar Digital Elevation Model for other flood prone areas in the country is planned to be generated by the year 2020, the Minister added.The Members of Parliament attending the meeting supported the measures taken by the Ministry for flood management in the Country. One member suggested that more thrust should be given on inter linking of rivers. Another member was of the opinion that in more embankment should constructed along with river ganga to check the flood.The following members of Parliament attended the meeting Shri AT (Nana) Patil, Smt. Anju Bala, Shri Bahadur Singh Koli, Shri Dharambir Bhaleram, Shri Prem Singh Chandumajra, Shri Sunil Kumar Mondal and Dr. Swami Sakshiji Maharaj (All from Lok Sabha) and Shri Ram Narain Dubi from Rajya Sabha.Ministers of States in the Ministry Dr Satya Pal Singh and Dr Arjun Ram Meghwal, Secretary Dr. Amarjit Singh, Chairman, CWC Shri Narendra Kumar, DG, NDWA Shri S Masood Husain and other senior officials of the Ministry also attended the meeting.