Assam flood: Situation grim, death toll rises to 6, over 8 lakh affected

The flood situation in Assam continued to be grim with three more people dying in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll in floods and landslides to six, even as over eight lakh people were marooned by the floods till Friday evening.

Officials of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said that two more persons have died due to floods in Golaghat district in the last 24 hours while one person died in a landslide in Dima Hasao district.

"A total of 1,556 villages in 68 revenue circles in 21 districts have been affected in the current wave of floods. The affected districts include Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang, Baksa, Barpeta, Nalbari, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Goalpara, Morigaon, Hojai, Nagaon, Golaghat, Majuli, Jorhat, Sibsagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia," an ASDMA official said on Friday.

"A total of 8,69,024 people, including women and children, have been affected by the floods," the official said.

He said that river Brahmaputra in Jorhat, Sonitpur, Kamrup, Goalpara and Dhubri districts was flowing above the danger level.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been pressed into service in the flood affected areas for search and rescue operations.

"Presently, 68 relief camps are operational in the affected districts," the official said.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal spoke with the deputy commissioners of the affected districts via video conference on Thursday to assess the situation. He directed the deputy commissioners to set up round-the-clock control rooms and respond to people's calls for help during emergency.

Assam is also grappling with rising cases of encephalitis and the state government has cancelled the leaves of all health department employees till the end of September to deal with the outbreak.

Nine districts in Assam are most vulnerable to encephalitis. Since 2013, over 700 people have died of the disease.

with IANS inputs