8 lakh people affected in floods across 14 districts of Assam

Flood situation in Assam marginally improved on Wednesday, although nearly eight lakh people are suffering across 14 districts in the state.

According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), more than 7.69 lakh people are still affected across 638 villages in 14 districts.

Till Tuesday, nearly 10 lakh people were affected by the floods across 804 villages in 19 districts.

The death toll in the current wave of floods stood at 34 across the state.

As of now, the affected districts are Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Golaghat, Bongaigaon, Dhemaji, Dhubri, Morigaon, Kokrajhar, Dibrugarh, Biswanath, Nagaon, South Kamrup and Goalpara.

Among them, Dhubri is the worst affected with nearly five lakh people still suffering, followed by Barpeta with almost one lakh and Goalpara with 86,000 people currently hit by the floods, the ASDMA said.

Authorities are running 118 relief camps and distribution centres, where 23,405 people are taking shelter across 11 districts.

Over 20,000 hectares of crop area are still under flood waters across the state, besides washing away number of roads, embankments, bridges and other infrastructure.

Currently, Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger mark at Nematighat in Jorhat and Dhubri town.

Meanwhile, state industry minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said at a press conference that the government has Rs 654 crore under SDRF, out of which Rs 47.53 crore has been released to the districts for flood relief and rehabilitation measures this year.

He said the government will soon start working on strengthening of the embankments.

Brahmaputra, Barak and its tributaries have a total of 4,474 km embankments spread across the state, he said.