Assam flood situation remains grim; toll rises to 61, over 7 lakh affected, relief yet to reach 80,000

Guwahati: The flood situation in Assam turned extremely critical on Friday as the toll rose to 61 with 14 more fatalities, even as 7.05 lakh people remained affected across nine districts.

PTI quoted a Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) bulletin issued on Friday night, stating that 14 people lost their lives in the deluge in the last 24 hours. Seven people, including two women, drowned in flood waters in Charaideo district, while six people, including one woman, died in Sivasagar and one in Jorhat, it said, adding that with the fresh fatalities, the total number of deaths in this year's floods increased to 61.

Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said his government was yet to deliver relief materials to at least 80,000 flood-affected people, even as the situation remained critical.

"We are trying very hard to reach all the people with relief items, but still many are left out. In Nazira assembly constituency, 30 per cent area or around 50,000 people are not reachable. In Sivasagar, 20 per cent area or 30,000 people are inaccessible. The count may be 10,000 more or less (from the 80,000 affected yet to be reached)," Sarma said at a press conference here.

He said although water had started receding in most of the places, huge layers of silt and mud lay on the streets, and people there were virtually disconnected.

According to the ASDMA, 7,05,100 people were affected in Charaideo, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Hojai, Jorhat, Karbi Anglong, Nagaon and Sivasagar districts.

Sivasagar was the worst-hit district with nearly 3.5 lakh people affected, followed by Charaideo (1.9 lakh) and Jorhat (1.3 lakh).

The ASDMA said the administration was running 363 relief camps and relief distribution centres in seven districts, taking care of 1,15,205 displaced people.

Multiple agencies like Army, NDRF, SDRF, Fire & Emergency Service, police and civil agencies rescued around 1,000 people from different parts of Jorhat and Sivasagar, it added.

A total of 2,109.84 quintals of rice, 383.93 quintals of dal, 129.91 quintals of salt and 9,646.08 litres of mustard oil were distributed among the flood victims in the last 24 hours.

At present, 856 villages were under water and 56,606.78 hectares of crop areas were damaged across Assam, the ASDMA said.

Embankments, roads, bridges and other infrastructure were damaged by flood waters in different districts of the state.

Dikhou River at Sivasagar, Dhansiri at Nanglamuraghat, Dhansiri at Numaligarh and Kushiyara at Sribhumi were flowing above the danger level.

On account of widespread flooding, 3,34,020 domestic animals and poultry were affected across the state.

Sarma said the situation was critical, and several ministers were stationed in the three worst-hit districts of Upper Assam.

"We have tried airdropping, too, but the relief items got damaged in the process. We will discuss with the Eastern Air Command of the IAF on how to package the relief materials so that these do not get damaged while airdropping," he said.

Sarma stated that while a few areas remain inaccessible, the administration was working on war footing to reach every affected location.

With additional boats, relief materials and essential supplies being mobilised from other districts of Assam, he expressed confidence that assistance would reach the remaining cut-off areas at the earliest.