Flood waters showed a receding trend in Assam. But two more people died 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 also from the same district.
On the brighter side, a day-long pause in rainfall 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 Hojai with 36,064 people and Nagaon with 27,691, both central Assam districts.
Of the 19,577 people who have moved into 80 relief camps, 17,928 are in Goalpara district.
“The floods have affected crops in 21,572.30 hectares. Thankfully, the floodwaters have receded from two districts – Lakhimpur and Barpeta,” a spokesperson of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority said.
The Brahmaputra continued to flow above the danger mark in parts of eastern Assam’s Jorhat district. The water level of the Jia Bharali and Puthimari rivers had subsided, but the Kopili river was flowing above the danger mark in Nagaon district, officials said.
Flood duty for teachers
The ASDMA has asked the heads of all 33 districts in the State to engage school and college teachers as well as the staff of different departments not actively involved in COVID-19 duty in flood relief and rescue operations.
The move was in order to mitigate the prevailing flood situation, the letter from ASDMA’s chief executive officer M.S. Maivannan said.