Floods affect over 1 lakh in Assam

Guwahati, July 9  Over one lakh people have been affected by to floods in seven districts of Assam for the last few days, an official said on Saturday.

A total of 112,307 people in 213 villages of Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Golaghat, Morigaon, Biswanath, Barpeta and Jorhat districts were marooned by floods till late Friday, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority official said.

The situation may get worse in the coming days as the state meteorological department has predicted more rains for Assam and other northeastern states.

"The situation is worse in Jorhat, Golaghat and Lakhimpur district where the district administration have opened six relief camps, housing over a thousand affected people," the official said.

District administrations have been asked despatch relief material to the affected areas, the official said.

There were reports of flash floods inundating villages and croplands.

According to the government, 6,978.63 hectares of land with standing crops have been affected by floods in the state.

The Brahmaputra river was flowing above the danger level at Neematighat (Jorhat district) and in Dhubri district.

The Dikhow river was also flowing above the danger level at Sivsagar and the Dhansiri river was flowing above the danger level at Golaghat and Numaligarh.

Besides, there were also reports of massive erosion in Majuli river Island. While the flood waters have inundated several village in the area, people feared erosion of river banks in last few days.

In Jorhat, the district administration called in the army to help carry out rescue operations.

The surging waters have reached embankments in the district causing more worries for the people.