Assam flood scene better; toll mounts by five to 65

Assam floods claimed five more lives on Monday, even as the overall situation improved marginally with around 8 lakh people affected across 17 districts in the state.

According to a report by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), three persons lost their lives in Morigaon district of Central Assam. It said one each died in Goalpara and Golaghat districts.

With this, the total number of persons losing their lives in this year's flood-related cases has gone up to 65, including eight in Guwahati.

The ASDMA said over 7.65 lakh people were suffering at present in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Nalbari, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Dhubri, South Salmara, Goalpara, Morigaon, Nagaon, Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Karimganj and Cachar districts.

Till yesterday, 10 lakh people were affected in the latest wave of floods across 21 districts in the state.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today directed all deputy commissioners to ensure that families affected by the floods were provided with relief materials, irrespective of whether they were staying in relief camps or not.

Reviewing the situation in a video-conference with the DCs, he asked them to take steps for repairing and rebuilding houses that were damaged fully or partially by floods.

At the Kaziranga National Park, 28 per cent of the area was under water.

The ASDMA said 1,102 villages were under water at present and nearly 41,000 hectares of crop areas were inundated.

The worst affected was South Salmara, where over 2.44 lakh people were affected by the deluge, followed by Morigaon with more than 1.45 lakh sufferers.

Authorities were running 256 relief camps and distribution centres in 13 districts, where 18,931 persons were currently taking shelter.

Across the state, 8,31,472 animals and poultry were affected by the flood waters at present.

Due to the impact of the flood waters, many roads, embankments and bridges have been damaged in many districts, including Cachar, Biswanath, Barpeta, Morigaon and Chirang.