Sixty persons have died due to the floods in Assam over the last couple of months. Nearly 10 lakh people in 21 districts of the State are affected.
The South Salwara district is the worst hit. The districts of Lakhimpur, Karimganj and Biswanath have also been severely affected by the flood.
According to State officials, about 435 roads, seven bridges and 30 embankments have been damaged in the flood. Hundreds of houses were submerged as the Brahmaputra has been flowing above the danger level.
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.
He asked authorities in the five districts covered by Kaziranga National Park — Nagaon, Karbi Anglong, Golaghat, Biswanath Chariali and Sonitpur — to take stringent steps to safeguard wild animals affected by the floods in close cooperation with the police and forest department.
The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said 1,102 villages were underwater at present and nearly 41,000 hectares of crop areas were inundated.
The authorities are running 256 relief camps and distribution centres in 13 districts, where 18,931 persons were currently taking shelter
Relief apace in Odisha
The State government rushed relief materials to villagers in the Rayagada and Kalahandi districts, a day after flash floods wrought havoc in Odisha. About 4,000 people were evacuated and lodged in 15 temporary shelters, where cooked food was being provided to them at free kitchen centres. Five bridges were washed away and four major roads were damaged in the floods.
The twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar faced heavy waterlogging. In 18 major localities in Cuttack, residents had a tough time stepping out of their houses as the lanes and by-lanes were submerged in water. Cuttack received 154.5 mm of rainfall over the 24 hours till Monday morning.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday directed all departments to work on war-footing to restore road and power connectivity to flood-hit villages.
Bengal, Himachal hit
West Bengal received isolated heavy downpour. A bamboo bridge over the Shilaboti River collapsed.
A man was swept away by flash floods triggered by a cloud burst in the Chama district of Himachal Pradesh as rains lashed many parts of the State. Banjar, which received 77 mm of rains since Monday, was the wettest place in the State.
(With inputs from Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar)
