By IANS
Guwahati : An estimated 2.8 million people have been displaced in the past six days in the worst ever flooding in Assam in recent years, officials said Monday. The total number people hit by floods since July has reached 10 million and 54 persons have been killed, they added.
“This is one of the most prolonged floods and by far the worst ever in recent years that left about 10 million people displaced in about 9,000 villages since July,” Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told journalists here.
An estimated one million people have been rendered homeless since Sunday with breaches in several embankments in parts of Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi, Dhubri, Morigaon, Barpeta and Nalbari districts.
“The situation is critical and we are trying our best to mitigate the woes of the people,” the chief minister said.
A Central Water Commission bulletin Monday said the main Brahmaputra river and its tributaries were flowing above the danger level in at least 17 places and in full spate.
“At least 20 of Assam’s 27 districts are now hit by the third wave of floods that began Wednesday,” Bhumidhar Barman, the state’s revenue, relief and rehabilitation minister, told IANS.
Most of the displaced people were now lodged at makeshift shelters in schools and offices, besides on raised embankments.
“We are providing food and medical support to the flood-hit people,” Barman said.
Army soldiers in rafts and wooden boats have rescued hundreds of people over the weekend in the worst hit districts of Dhemaji, Dhubri, North Lakhimpur, Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj.
“The army is working overtime in the affected areas and we have kept on standby Indian Air Force helicopters to carry out relief and rescue mission as and when required,” the minister said.
An Assam government statement said a total land area of 1.2 million hectares was affected.
“A total of 54 people have been drowned in separate incidents since July,” the statement said.
The swirling floodwaters have breached 81 vital embankments, besides sweeping away road bridges and stretches of highways.
“Road links in several parts of the state have remained cut off with a number of bridges washed away,” Barman said.
The Assam government Monday announced setting up of a Flood and Erosion Commission involving experts to evolve long-term strategies to prevent floods.
“The Commission would chalk out ways and means to minimize the damage caused by floods and also see to it that some mechanism is devised by which flood forecasting could be made,” the chief minister said.
The 2,906-km long Brahmaputra is one of Asia’s largest rivers. For its first 1625 km it traverses through Tibet, the next 918 km in India, and the remaining 363 km through Bangladesh before converging into the Bay of Bengal.
Every year the floods in Assam leave a trail of destruction, washing away villages, submerging paddy fields, drowning livestock, and causing loss of human life and property.
In 2004, more than 200 people were killed in floods in Assam.