Assam floods: Child drowns, nine lakh hit so far; Centre releases over Rs 324 crore as advance share

GUWAHATI: The flood condition in Assam improved marginally on Thursday, although a child lost his life and over nine lakh people continued to reel under the impact of the deluge across 12 districts, an official bulletin said.

According to the daily flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), a child drowned in Cachar district during the day.

The total number of people losing their lives in this year's flood and landslides has now gone up to 187 in the state.

ASDMA said around 9,06,000 people are impacted due to the flood in Bajali, Cachar, Chirang, Darrang, Dibrugarh, Hailakandi, Kamrup, Karimganj, Morigaon, Nagaon, Sivasagar and Tamulpur districts.

Cachar is the worst hit with over 5.63 lakh people in distress, followed by Nagaon and Morigaon.

Till Wednesday, over 9.68 lakh people were affected in the deluge across 15 districts of the state.

At present, 707 villages are under water and 17,068.73 hectares of crop area has been damaged, ASDMA said.

It said the authorities are operating 246 relief camps and distribution centres in 12 districts, where 91,594 people, including 27,938 children, are taking shelter.

A total of 1,49,861 domestic animals and poultry have been affected due to the flood, across nine districts, the bulletin said.

None of the rivers, however, is flowing above the danger mark in Assam for the time being, it added.

The Centre has released Rs 324.40 crore as advance share of the State Disaster Response Fund for 2022-23 to Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday.

The state government had requested the Ministry of Home Affairs for release of the second installment of the central share for undertaking relief measures in the calamity-affected areas.

'This will help combat the current floods and also in making provisions for flood victims,” Sarma tweeted.

Flood and mudslides this year have resulted in the death of 187 people in the state, besides causing loss of property and damage to infrastructure.

An Inter Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) had recently visited some of the flood-affected areas to assess the damage.