Eight more persons died in Assam on Sunday as the flood situation in the northeastern state persisted. With this, the toll in this year’s floods, landslides and storms in the state rose to 78, reported PTI.
Two deaths each were reported from Dhubri and Nalbari, and one each from Cachar, Goalpara, Dhemaji and Sivsagar, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority bulletin said.
A total of 22,74,289 people in 28 districts of the state have been facing the effects of the flood. Dhubri is the worst-hit district, with 7,54,791 residents having faced disruptions due to floods.
The districts that have reported floods are Kamrup, Nagaon, Cachar, Dhubri, Goalpara, Morigaon, Hailakandi, Bongaigaon, South Salmara, Dibrugarh, Karimganj, Lakhimpur, Hojai, Nalbari, Charaideo, Biswanath, Golaghat, Jorhat, Dhemaji, Barpeta, Sonitpur, Kokrajhar, Majuli, Kamrup (M), Darrang, Sivasagar, Chirang, and Tinsukia.
According to the state disaster management authority, the Brahmaputra river is flowing above the danger mark in the state’s Neamatighat, Tezpur and Dhubri regions.
A total of 53,689 persons are currently in 269 relief camps.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said that authorities are working on a “permanent solution” to the floods.
“Our focus must be on finding a national solution to the Assam Floods unlike those who only want to declare it a national problem,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader told reporters. “In 2004 there were 400 embankments breaches while today we have only four such breaches.”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that the flood situation in Assam was becoming increasingly dangerous.
“I appeal to Congress leaders and workers to provide help in rescue and rehabilitation operations,” he said in a post on X. “I urge the Central and State governments to compassionately and expeditiously extend all possible support to those affected.”
Congress MP from Assam Gaurav Gogoi said that the floods showed the failure of the governments at both the central and state level.
“His [prime minister Narendra Modi’s] double-engine government has failed completely,” Gogoi told reporters. “We have never seen such an atmosphere in Dibrugarh and Guwahati, which are two most famous cities of Assam. In Guwahati, a child died after falling into a drain. What kind of smart city are they building?”
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