By IANS
Dhemaji (Assam) : The leader of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil are taking a whirlwind tour of Assam Tuesday to assess the damage caused by the raging floods, officials said.
A government spokesman said the two leaders would arrive at Lilabari in North Lakhimpur district in eastern Assam before doing an aerial survey of the worst hit Dhemaji district.
“Both Gandhi and Patil would meet affected people in Dhemaji before leaving for another round of aerial survey in parts of northern and western Assam,” Bhumidhar Barman, Assam revenue, relief and rehabilitation minister, told IANS.
The two leaders would then hold a meeting with Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and some of his cabinet colleagues at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati before leaving for New Delhi.
“We are submitting a memorandum to Gandhi detailing the extent of damage caused by the floods and seeking urgent attention from the central government. The two leaders are expected to be in Assam for about four hours,” Barman said.
A government statement Tuesday said an estimated 24 people were drowned in separate incidents and 6.7 million were displaced in the floods in 26 of Assam’s 27 districts.
“A total of 5,862 villages covering a land area of 870,000 hectares were affected in the floods, besides an estimated 355,000 hectares of crop land damaged,” Gogoi said.
The Assam government has so far spent about Rs.200 million towards providing relief to the affected people who have been stranded for more than a fortnight in makeshift shelters after their villages were inundated by the swirling floodwaters of the great Asian river Brahmaputra.
“The situation is fast returning to normal with thousands of people returning to their homes with floodwaters receding,” the chief minister told IANS.
However, thousands of people continue to stay in temporary shelters on raised platforms or in government schools and offices with their homes filled with mud and slush.
“The priority now is to ensure that that there is no outbreak of any waterborne diseases in the state,” Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
“Medical teams have been fanned out in the area and visiting makeshift shelters and villages to see that people do not suffer. There are no reports of any epidemic or outbreak of waterborne diseases so far,” he added.