Death toll rises to 17 as Assam flood situation worsens; 19 lakh people affected

Mangalore Today News Network

Guwahati, June 18, 2022: The flood situation in Assam deteriorated further on Friday as incessant rains pounded the state and nine more people lost their lives, including two children. Another person remains missing. The calamity has affected nearly 19 lakh people in 2,930 villages across 28 districts of the state. A total of 17 people have lost their lives in the current spell of floods this year.

 

The 28 districts that have been affected by floods are Bajali, Baksa, Barpeta, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Dima-Hasao, Goalpara, Hojai, Kamrup, Kamrup (M), Karbi Anglong West, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Sonitpur, South Salmara, Tamulpur, Tinsukia and Udalguri.

“The situation in the villages is very bad. The surging flood waters are dangerous and the water level is rising every hour. My house is totally submerged and we have shifted to a relative’s house,” Pramod Barman, a flood-affected villager in Nalbari district said.

Bajali is the worst-hit district where a total of 3.55 lakh people have been affected due to the flood, followed by Darrang, where over 2.90 lakh people are affected. A total of 43,338.39 hectares of cropland are underwater.

Authorities have opened 373 relief camps that are providing shelter to over one lakh people. While the river Kopili is flowing above the highest flood level mark at Kampur in Nagaon district, Brahmaputra, Beki, Manas, Pagladia, Puthimari and Jia-Bharali rivers are flowing above their danger level mark at several places.

“The situation here is not at all good. Several houses have been swept away by the flood waters and croplands have also been destroyed,” said another flood victim in Nalbari, Kamal Barman.

Residents of the state capital Guwahati are yet to get respite from the artificial flood waters that have submerged several roads and major localities of the city. A few cases of landslides were also reported on Friday. However, no casualties have been reported in the city due to the landslides.

Meanwhile, the opposition Assam Pradesh Congress on Friday performed a special ‘puja’ in Guwahati in response to state chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s alleged remark of ‘regrettable surrender’ regarding the floods and his appeal to the people to pray to God to get respite from the rains.

Assam Pradesh Mahila Congress president Mira Borthakur said, “As the chief minister has left us on God, we are performing this puja to save the people from the floods.”

In response to the Congress performing the puja, the Bharatiya Janata Party, Assam Pradesh said that the grand old party is doing all these to draw the attention of the media.

“This is a natural calamity and nobody has control over it, but taking advantage of it, the Congress is doing puja Archana to draw the attention of the media,” said BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Assam Pabitra Margherita.

The Indian Army, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and Fire & Emergency Services of the Assam Police have launched massive rescue and relief operations in all the flood-affected districts.

A total of nine composite teams of the Army have been carrying out rescue and relief operations in the flood-affected districts of Baksa, Nalbari, Bajali, Darrang, Tamulpur, Hojai and Kamrup.

With the India Meteorological Department predicting more rains in the next 24 hours, there seems no immediate respite for the people from floods in Assam.

Courtesy: India Today