GUWAHATI: 21 more people died and nearly 5.65 lakh people were affected by floods in Assam as rains continued in several areas worsening the overall situation on Wednesday, officials said.
These deaths bring the total number of deaths in this year’s floods to 31 people.
Prime Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited several flood-affected areas of upper Assam and interacted with the victims and announced ex-gratia financial relief. $4 thousand to the relatives of each deceased.
“There has been massive damage caused by the floods. I have assured the affected families that they are not alone in this crisis. Our government stands with them in every step of rehabilitation and rebuilding livelihoods,” he told reporters in Sivasagar.
Regarding complaints of non-receipt of relief materials by a large segment of those affected, Sarma said that there are difficulties in providing relief materials in villages that are flooded with water.
“There is no road or any means of communication to reach these people who are still in their homes. The administration accepts that. We have not been able to reach many places. When the flood waters recede, we will be able to reach these areas. We also cannot airdrop relief materials now. We are trying our best to reduce the difficulties faced by the people,” the Prime Minister said.
But the Prime Minister said that for all those who have managed to reach the relief camps, there is no shortage or problem in the distribution of relief materials.
“We will provide relief immediately $4 lakh to the relatives or families of each deceased. “I will also try to help them in the future.”
According to the Assam Disaster Management Authority, 21 people lost their lives in the deluge in the last 24 hours.
She added that 13 people, including four women and two children, drowned in floodwaters in the Sivasagar district, and five of them, including two children, drowned in Charadeo, two in Golaghat, and a woman in Jorhat.
According to the daily flood report issued by the authority at midnight on Tuesday, more than 5,64,600 people were affected in Biswanath, Charadeo, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Jorhat, Kamrup, Kamrup Metropolitan, Karbi Anglong, Nagaon, Sivasagar and Tinsukia districts.
Sivasagar is the worst-hit district with nearly 3.6 lakh people affected, followed by Jorhat with about 88,000 people and Charadeo with more than 72,500 people reeling under the floodwaters.
The India Meteorological Department has issued a ‘yellow warning’ for Assam and predicted thunderstorms and heavy rain at isolated places over the next four days.
IMD’s “yellow alert” indicates monitoring and updating.
The IMD Regional Meteorological Center in Guwahati said the circulation of upper air cyclones over central Assam and neighboring Nagaland between 1.5 and 3.1 km above mean sea level has become less pronounced.
Sarma said he interacted with people at one of the relief camps set up in Charadeo to assess their situation and assured them that people who were seriously ill or unable to move would be shifted to hospitals.
He added: “Medical teams and all basic services are present. I assured every family that we will stand by their side through relief, rehabilitation and recovery.”
Sarma also assured the public that the government would take necessary steps to provide all documents lost in the flood.
The flood situation has worsened significantly since Monday night, when nearly 3.63 lakh people were affected in 15 districts.
ASDMA said the administration operates 273 relief camps and relief distribution centers in 10 districts, and is taking care of 12,284 displaced people at the moment.
Multiple agencies, such as Army, NDRF, SDRF, Fire and Emergency Service, Police and civil agencies, rescued more than 6,000 people from different parts of Charadeo, Golaghat, Jorhat and Sivasagar, she added.
The authority distributed 5,011.07 quintals of rice, 956.53 quintals of dal, 265.18 quintals of salt and 20,115.42 liters of mustard oil to flood victims in the state during the last 24 hours.
Currently, 872 villages are under water, and 24,210.35 hectares of crop area has been damaged across Assam, the ASDMA said.
Dams, roads, bridges and other infrastructure were damaged by floodwaters in different parts of the state.
At present, the Brahmaputra river is flowing above the danger mark in Niyamatighat, while its tributaries Buridihing in Khuang, Dhansiri in Golaghat and Numaligarh are also flowing above the danger mark.
On the other hand, the Dikhu River in Sivasagar and the Desang River in Nanglemuraghat are flowing above the highest flood level, the association said.
Due to widespread flooding, 1,85,029 domestic animals and poultry were affected across the state.
This article was generated from an automated news feed without any modifications to the text.
