Prepare ward wise micro level plan involving the locals: CM to Cachar DC
HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, June 23: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday made an aerial survey of parts of the flood affected Cachar district which were inaccessible by road communication due to flood waters of the Barak River. CM Sarma assessed the damages caused by the deluge and asked the Cachar district administration to intensify relief and rescue operations and reiterated that the state government was firmly with the people of Barak valley.
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Following the aerial survey, chief minister Sarma chaired a meeting with senior officials of various government departments at the Cachar district deputy commissioner’s conference hall and took stock of the flood and rescue operations already being undertaken. Accordingly, he directed the district administration to prepare a ‘ward wise micro level plan’ with the help of local people and public representatives for Silchar town.
Chairing the meeting, CM Sarma announced that ten high level administrative officers from Dispur, engineers from the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited, Guwahati and more jawans of the Indian Army will be placed in Silchar to assist the district administration in carrying out relief and rescue operations.
Talking to the media persons after the meeting, the chief minister said, “We have decided to air-drop at least one lakh litre of drinking water daily from Friday. We are also trying to repair and restore the damaged transformers so that people get electricity at the earliest. However, repairing and restoration of those transformers located in the submerged areas will take time.”
Notably, packets containing various food items, water bottles and essentials were airdropped on Thursday at flood-hit Silchar by Air Force helicopters. According to CM Sarma, air-dropping of all sorts of essential commodities will be intensified from Friday. In this regard, the chief minister said, “We plan to continue such air-dropping for our stranded people in the days ahead, apart from the regular relief. Rescue agencies like the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, officers and jawans of the Indian Army and the Air Force have been closely monitoring and dealing with the situation. Our government is firmly with the people of Barak valley.”
He also assured the media persons that the overall situation will improve in the next 48 hours provided that there is no fresh rainfall in the region.
Throughout the visit, the chief minister was accompanied by Assam Transport minister Parimal Suklabaidya, Member of Parliament Rajdeep Roy, legislators Dwipayan Chakraborty and Kaushik Roy and principal secretary, Disaster management, Abinash Joshi. Number of senior officials from the NDRF and SDRF also attended the meeting.
Other hand, the Brahmaputra and two other rivers – Disang and Kopili – were flowing above the danger level at various places as the flood situation in the state still remained grim on Thursday. According to a report prepared by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, the Brahmaputra in lower Assam’s Dhubri district, Kopili river at Nagaon’s Dharamtul and Kampur and Disang river at the Nanglamuraghat were still flowing above the danger mark. At the same time, fresh submersions were seen at new places of Kamrup district’s Potoni, Gerua, Hajo and Ramdia on Thursday.
The ASDMA report released on Thursday evening revealed that including three urban areas of Cachar, Karimganj and Morigaon, at least 30 districts were still undergoing submersion due to flash floods. The affected districts were Bajali, Baksa, Barpeta, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Cachar, Chirang, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Dima-Hasao, Goalpara, Golaghat, Hailakandi, Hojai, Kamrup, Kamrup (M), Karbi, Anglong West, Karimganj, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sonitpur, South Salmara, Tamulpur, Tinsukia and Udalguri.
The official report highlighted that till Thursday evening, at least two lakh eighty-four thousand eight hundred and seventy-five flood-affected inmates were being accommodated in the relief camps established by the respective district administrations. It must be mentioned here that on Thursday Assam lost 7 human lives due to floods.
