Flood situation in Assam remains grave

Guwahati: The flood situation in Assam continued to be grave on Friday with more than half of the districts submerged by waters of the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries, leading to the death of three persons and affecting 4.23 lakh people.

The swirling flood waters have forced the railway authority to control train services due to "settlement of tracks" in the Lumding-Badarpur hill section, Northeast Frontier Railway sources said.

According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority(ASDMA), the affected districts are Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Nalbari, Chirang, Golaghat, Majuli, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Nagaon, Morigaon, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Baksa, Sonitpur, Darrang and Barpeta.

Barpeta is the worst hit with over 85,000 people reeling under the impact of the floods, it said. The ASDMA said nearly 800 villages in 41 revenue circles are under water and about 2,000 marooned people have been put up in 53 relief camps and relief distribution centres set up by the district administrations.

Kaziranga National Park, the famed habitat of the Great Indian Rhino and a World Heritage site, has been affected too forcing the authorities to set up road barricades on the national highway passing near it to limit the speed of vehicles, said Kaziranga divisional forest officer Ruhini Saikia. See P6