Army, chopper to help Assam flood victims

Guwahati: The flood situation in Assam was grim in Assam on Wednesday with Air Force choppers pressed into service to evacuate the marooned as the death toll in the deluge mounted to 16. Around 3.7 lakh people have been affected in the floods.

Army, NDRF and SDRF teams also conducted rescue and relief operations in inundated areas.

According to the flood report by Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), eight people have lost their lives in Goalpara district since on Thursday. Kamrup Metro district, which primarily comprise Guwahati city, has witnessed five deaths in the same period. Of these, four deaths have been reported due to landslide and one on account of electrocution, it added.

Two persons died and one more is missing in Boko area of Kamrup Rural district. Also, a child was killed in landslide in Dhubri district's Hatsingimari area.

Authorities have opened 94 relief camps and shelter homes where nearly 85,000 people have been shifted with the Goalpara district becoming the worst-hit in the latest round of floods due to heavy rains in Assam and Meghalaya since Saturday.

The report said 3.7 lakh people are affected in 10 districts. Nearly 1.5 lakh people are hit in Kamrup Rural, while over 1.4 lakh persons are suffering in Goalpara.

Altogether, 12 districts are affected in the flood with 415 villages and nearly 9,000 hectares of crop area are under water, it added.

The affected districts are Goalpara, Kamrup Metro, Kamrup Rural, Dhemaji, Barpeta, Udalguri, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Nalbari, Morigaon, Sonitpur, Darrang and Lakhimpur.

A number of embankments have been breached across the state. In Nalbari, four breaches have been reported in Mora Pagladia, while two cuts are seen in Nonoi river in Darrang.

In Sonitpur, rain gobbled different parts of Brahmaputra dyke, while embankments got breached along Belsiri and Jiabhoroli rivers.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi held an emergency meeting with senior officials during the day to take stock of the situation and directed the authorities concerned to take all-out measures to deal with it, CMO officials said.

Medicines have been dispatched to the flood-hit areas.

Besides, water purifiers, hand pumps, mobile water treatment plants and pumping equipment have also been sent, a disaster management department official said.

In the worst-hit Goalpara, over 80,000 people are living in 84 shelter places.

Goalpara Deputy Commissioner Preetom Saikia said a bridge over Krishnai on NH-37 was damaged and a team of engineers has been sent to restore it.

With rains letting up, rescue and relief operation are on and Air Force choppers have been pressed into service to rescue marooned people in Dudhnoi, Krishnai and Bolbola.

The state government has called in the Army, which along with NDRF and SDRF teams, have been engaged for rescue work.

"However, majority of the people have come down on their own," Saikia said.

The flood situation in Kamrup Rural district turned grim with bodies of two women recovered from a paddy field in Boko area, police said.

Vast tracts of land have been inundated in Chaygaon, Nagarberra, Goroimari and Boko as water of rivers Kulsi, Jaljanli, Singra, Kolohi and Brahmaputra gushed in following heavy rains in neighbouring Meghalaya, Kamrup Rural Deputy Commissioner J Balaji said.

Road communications along NH-37, flooded at various places, have been disrupted and a concrete bridge between Nagarbera and Hekra was washed away, he added.