The flood situation in Assam remained grim with over 54.5 lakh people still affected and 12 fresh deaths reported while Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma made an aerial survey of severely affected Silchar town on Thursday, officials said.
The toll due to the flood since mid-May is now 101, they said.
Brahmaputra and Barak rivers along with its tributaries are in spate in most of the affected districts and vast tracts of land remained inundated in 32 of the total 36 districts in the state. The flood waters, however, receded in a few places
The Chief Minister after making an aerial survey of the town, reviewed the flood scenario in the Barak Valley and announced that additional columns of the army will be sent to Silchar for carrying out evacuation of marooned people in the town.
”The NDRF, SDRF, army and other agencies are conducting rescue operations but additional army columns will arrive tomorrow to evacuate the marooned people”, Sarma told reporters outside the Silchar Deputy Commissioner’s office after the meeting.
He, however, did not specify the number of columns that will be deployed.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by Silchar MP Rajdeep Roy, Cachar Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli and Superintendent of Police Ramandeep Kaur.
Sarma said that 30 packets containing food items, water bottles and essentials were airdropped today at different places of flood-hit Silchar byIAF helicopters and ”this will continue for the next few days, apart from the regular relief”.
He said that more water bottles from Guwahati will be airlifted to Silchar as clean drinking water supply is scarce and ”’we plan to airdrop one lakh bottles of drinking water daily”.
Power supply was disrupted in several parts of the town but it has been restored in some areas while engineers from the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) will arrive from Guwahati to help in repair ”but there is a risk in repairing the transformers submerged in water”, Sarma said.
Ten more officers will join at Silchar tomorrow to help the district administration in providing relief to the affected people, he said.
The Chief Minister also directed the district administration to prepare ward wise micro level plan for Silchar town with the help of local people and public representatives.
The three districts of Barak Valley- Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj were severely affected by the rising water of the Barak and Kushiara while Silchar town was submerged due to a breach of an embankment for the last four days.
A total population of 2,32,002 have been hit by the flood in 565 villages in Cachar district, 2,81,271in 469 villages of Karimganj and over 51,000 in 98 villages in Hailakandi.
A total population 54,57,601 have been affected across the state in 32 districts with the total death rising to 101 in this year’s floods in the state since mid-May.
The worst affected districts are Barpeta with 11,29,390, followed by Kamrup with 7,89,496, Dhubri with 5,97,153 and Nagaon with 5,03,450 people suffering under the devastating floods, according to a bulletin of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) on Thursday.
Urban flooding was reported from Cachar, Darrang, Goalpara, Karimganj and Morigaon.
The devastating floods, caused by incessant rainfall, has affected 112 revenue circles and 4941 villages, while 2,71,125 inmates have taken shelter in 845 relief camps, it said.
Relief materials were distributed from 1026 delivery points among flood-hit people who have not taken shelters in the relief camps.
Landslides were reported from Haflong’s Bethany village in Dima Hasao district while 19 houses have been damaged at various locations of Barthal in Karimganj following incessant rainfall, according to the bulletin.
The floods have also damaged 218 roads and 20 bridges while two embankments were breached in Kamrup district.
A crop area of 99,026 hectares and 33,17,086 animals have been affected due to the current second wave of floods.
Large scale erosion was also reported from Baksa, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Morigaon, Nalbari and Udalguri.
