Floodwaters showed a receding trend in Assam but left two people dead on Thursday, taking the toll to three.
Officials said a person each drowned in Lakhipur and Balijana areas of western Assam’s Goalpara district. Wednesday’s casualty was from the same district.
On the brighter side, a day-long pause in rain saw the number of flood-hit districts come down from 11 to nine. But the number of displaced people across 300 inundated villages went up from 2.72 lakh to 2.94 lakh within a span of 24 hours.
Goalpara continued to be the worst-affected district with 2.01 lakh people forced to take shelter on higher, dryer grounds, followed by 36,064 people in Hojai and 27,691 in Nagaon, both central Assam districts.
Of the 19,577 people who moved into 80 relief camps, 17,928 are in Goalpara district.
“The floods have affected crop in 21,572.30 hectares of land. Thankfully, the floodwaters have receded from two districts — Lakhimpur and Barpeta,” a spokesperson of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said.
The Brahmaputra continued to flow above the danger mark in parts of eastern Assam’s Jorhat district.
Duty for teachers
The ASDMA has asked the heads of all 33 districts in the State to engage in flood relief and rescue operations school and college teachers as well as the staff of different departments not actively involved in COVID-19 duty.
