Flood situation worsens in Assam

Universal News Agency
Guwahati Sept 21: The flood situation in Assam on Friday turned serious as 50 per cent of the population of Dhemaji district was reeling under the impact of the deluge while many villages in Tinsukia, Kamrup, Sonitpur and Lakhimpur district flooded even as two students drowned in Doomdooma.

Official sources said Raj Kishore Choudhury and Dilip Mala of Doomdooma College drowned in Tinsukia district of upper Assam when their country boat capsized as they tried to cross a local river in spate at Doomdooma on Thursday.

In the flash floods in neighboring Dhemaji district, due to rains in the catchment areas of Arunachal Pradesh, four lakh of the eight lakh people have been affected by the floods inundating 400 villages due to breach of embankments on the Brahmaputra, the sources said.

Ten houses and a lower primary school have been washed away by the deluge, which has marooned 25,000 people at Jurkota and Sisir area.

Sadiya sub-division has been cut off from the rest of the country as its only connection of ferry service has been suspended due to the swelling Brahmaputra.

In Sadiya sub-division, 80 villages, 15 in Goriatim and eight in Dolai were inundated, they said, adding, NH-52 was inundated snapping traffic movement to Arunachal Pradesh.

The Dibru Saikhowa National Park was badly affected by the floods even though there was no loss of animal life so far.

Eight relief camps have been set up so far with an estimated 10,000 people taking shelter there.
Troops from 12 Bihar Regiment had been deployed for rescue operations, the sources said.

In Nalbari district along the Indo-Bhutan border, eight villages were affected by the Mora Pagladia and Tihu rivers due to rains in the Bhutan foot-hills, the official said.

In Kamrup, seven villages and two each in Sonitpur and Lakhimpur were also affected by the floods.