The overall flood situation in Assam remained grim, but the water level of the Brahmaputra showed signs of receding in some parts. So far, 25 persons have lost their lives and 18 lakh people across 3,374 villages in 22 districts have been affected in the current wave of floods.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, accompanied by his deputy Kiren Rijiju and Minister for DoNER Jitendra Singh will undertake an aerial survey of flood-affected areas today, during which he will also hold a review of the situation in Guwahati.
They will also visit the districts of Nagaon and Morigaon besides the Kaziranga national park. The Home Minister will also be visiting Bhagatgaon camp of flood-affected people in Morigaon district, an official release said here.
Singh will also hold a meeting with Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and state government officers in Guwahati before returning to Delhi in the evening.
The affected districts are Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Jorhat, Bongaigaon, Dhemaji, Barpeta, Goalpara, Dhubri, Darrang, Morigaon, Sonitpur, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Kokrajhar, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Biswanath, Kamrup Metropolitan, Chirang, Nagaon, Kamrup and South Kamrup.
According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), over 17 lakh people have been affected by floods and over one lakh people have been forced to abandon their houses and take refuge in relief camps. Flood waters have inundated more than 3300 villages as well as crops standing on 2,13,251 hectares of land.
CM Sonowal yesterday visited Dhubri and Chirang districts and made a ground assessment of the flood situation in those two districts.
He also visited some relief camps, spoke to the inmates, and later went to some spots where the Brahmaputra and Aie rivers had breached embankments leading to massive inundation of a number of villages in the two districts. Sonowal had on earlier visited Majuli, Golaghat and Lakhimpur districts.
He also directed officials to provide all possible help to the flood-affected people saying “there was no dearth of funds, and that adequate amounts of money have been already released to the affected districts”.
He also asked the officials to remain prepared with men and machinery and keep round-the-clock vigil on embankments and other vulnerable areas that are likely to spur more damages.
Meanwhile, Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Friday said the Indian Railways will provide free wagons to the state government to transport essential commodities to the flood-affected districts. Talking to Sonowal on phone, Prabhu said the state government could make use of the abandoned railway tracks as 'platforms' for sheltering those displaced by the deluge.
