Guwahati, Jul 24 (PTI): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said his government is yet to deliver relief materials to at least 80,000 flood-affected people, even as the situation remained critical, with the toll rising to 61 after 14 more deaths.
Over 7 lakh people were affected due to the flood across nine districts, an official bulletin said late on Friday.
“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 that although water has started receding in most of the places, huge layers of silt and mud lay on the streets, and people there are virtually disconnected.
“In Charaideo district, relief has been sent to all parts by today,” the CM said.
Sarma said the situation is critical, and several ministers have been 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 is 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 will reach the remaining cut-off areas at the earliest.
He also said that around 40,000 households do not have electricity connection as of now, although power has been restored to 75 per cent consumers.
At a review meeting of the flood-hit districts, chaired by Sarma, BJP MLA Mayur Borgohain said the state machinery has not been able to reach the worst-hit areas of his Nazira constituency, and around 30 per cent of the affected people are yet to receive any relief.
“In my constituency, around 270 wards are affected. The bigger issue is that we have been able to reach only 70 per cent of places in Nazira,” the legislator said at the meeting, video clips of which were shared by Sarma on his Facebook page.
The administration has not been able to reach the worst-affected places of the constituency, including panchayats in Kamal Chapori, he said.
“That is the biggest challenge for us. There is no means to reach the victims, and we have failed to even provide drinking water. We will not be able to reach them even tomorrow,” Borgohain said.
The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), in the bulletin issued on Friday night, stated 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.
More than 7,05,100 people were affected in Charaideo, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Hojai, Jorhat, Karbi Anglong, Nagaon and Sivasagar districts, it said.
Sivasagar was the worst-hit district with nearly 3.5 lakh people affected, followed by Charaideo (1.9 lakh) and Jorhat (1.3 lakh).
Over 7.21 lakh people were affected across 11 districts on Thursday.
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.
At present, 856 villages are under water and 56,606.78 hectares of crop area have been damaged across Assam, it said.
The Dikhou River at Sivasagar, Dhansiri at Nanglamuraghat, Dhansiri at Numaligarh and Kushiyara at Sribhumi were flowing above the danger level, the bulletin said.
At the presser, Sarma said that there was no cloudburst in Nagaland, and that the affected areas witnessed up to 500 per cent excess rainfall, comparable to a cloudburst-like event, which led to the severe flood situation in Assam.
“The severe flooding was triggered by exceptionally heavy rainfall in the neighbouring hill areas of Nagaland and the affected districts in Assam. Several districts received rainfall ranging from 100 per cent to as high as 493 per cent above the seasonal normal, resulting in a rapid rise in water levels and causing widespread flooding across the region,” he said.
“A comprehensive assessment of the damage will take a few more days, as some areas remain inaccessible. The loss assessment will be carried out systematically. A central government team will visit the state tomorrow to assess the impact of the floods,” the CM said.
Sarma also claimed that rampant development activities in Meghalaya’s hills bordering Guwahati were responsible for frequent widespread flooding in the city.
He said the matter is being heard by the Supreme Court, where an empowered committee has submitted a report presenting a grim picture of the effect of rapid developmental work in Jorabat, particularly in the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM) and surrounding areas, on Guwahati.
“I think the Meghalaya government has to take a sympathetic consideration regarding the impact in Assam. I will appeal to the Meghalaya government to see how the development in and around Jorabat can be controlled. Otherwise, Guwahati will be an unmanageable city,” Sarma said. PTI TR SSG MNB NN TR RBT
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)
