Assam floods: Situation worsens as 31.54 lakh in 26 districts affected, 12 dead in last 24 hours

Guwahati: Assam's flood situation worsened with more than 31 lakh people affected and 12 deaths during the last 24 hours.

Many parts of Cachar's Silchar town remained under water for over eleven days on Thursday, officials said.

The death toll due to flood and landslides this year has increased to 151.

The number of affected population increased to 31.54 lakh in 26 districts as against the previous day's 24.92 lakh.

The Brahmaputra at many places including Beki, Kopili, Barak and Kushiyara were flowing above the danger level though most other rivers showed a receding trend.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma held a virtual conference with Deputy Commissioners on Thursday and asked them to provide relief and ensure the rehabilitation of affected people at the earliest.

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He also directed them to make a speedy assessment of damages caused by floods so that adequate compensation can be paid to affected people.

The Chief Minister said that a timeline has been set to assess the damages in each district by 15 July which will be endorsed by the guardian ministers and secretaries by 20 July, after which compensation will be distributed to affected people. The entire process is expected to be completed by 15 August.

In Silchar, several areas of the town are still waterlogged and the situation remained critical with shortage of food, drinking water and medicines faced by affected people.

Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli said that continuous work was going on to repair the damaged portion of the dyke breached at Bethukundi which led to waterlogging in the town.

Work is also going on to repair the breached dyke at Barjuri under Katigorah revenue circle of Cachar district, she added.

She said that priority was being given to reach the affected people with clean drinking water and food while medical camps are being organised by the health department in all the 28 municipal wards to ensure prevention of water-borne diseases.

Meanwhile, 2,675 villages under 79 revenue circles have been affected across the state while 3.12 lakh people have taken shelter in 560 relief camps, according to the bulletin.

Relief materials were distributed from 280 delivery points among flood-hit people who have not taken shelter in relief camps.

Among the worst affected districts are Cachar with a total population of 14.30 lakh followed by Barpeta with 5.49 lakh and Nagaon with 5.19 lakh.

Five embankments were breached with four in Biswanath and one in Lakhimpur while 177 roads and five bridges have been damaged.

According to the bulletin, 548 houses were fully damaged while 1,034 have been partially damaged due to the floods.

Large scale erosion was also reported from Baksa, Barpeta, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sonitpur, South Salmara, Tamulpur and Tinsukia.

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