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The flood situation in Assam remained grim after fresh heavy rainfall in Meghalaya’s Garo hills and Goalpara district as the death toll mounted to 40.
The district administration in Goalpara apprehending fresh flash floods has sounded an alert and called upon people living in foothills areas of Garo hills to shift to highland areas.
Traffic was crawling along NH-37 with the vehicles carrying essential commodities only were being allowed to ply, a district administration official said. Supply of electricity to the severely affected areas of the district was restored on Friday after five days.
However, in Goalpara, the National Highway was still under water and there was no movement of traffic while a wooden bridge Aagia-Darek Road has been washed away.
Railway services have been disrupted in the Assam because of the flood situation. Hundreds of passengers were stranded in various railway stations because of cancellation of several trains. A spokesman of the Northeast Frontier Railway informed that total twelve trains had been cancelled besides partial cancellation and diversion of few other trains.
The current wave of flood, triggered by heavy rains in neighbouring Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, has affected a population of nearly 10 lakh in eleven districts of the state, a release by the Assam state disaster management authority said.
More than 1.11 lakh hectares of cropland have been inundated by the flood waters and heavy loss of cattle and poultry has been reported with the value of the losses being assessed.
The current wave has also resulted in huge infrastructural losses with wooden and concrete bridges being washed away, embankments breached, roads, culverts and irrigation canals damaged but the exact value of losses is yet to be ascertained.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi made an aerial survey of the worst affected Goalpara and Kamrup (rural) district for about 45 minutes but could not land to visit relief camps because of inclement weather there, state government officials said.
Union Minister of State for Youth and Sports Sarbananda Sonowal also visited flood-devastated Bolbola areas in Goalpara district to take stock of the situation. Union Minister of State for Home Kirren Rjiju had to cancel his visit to Goalpara because of inclement weather.
Sonowal while assuring all possible help from the Centre to the flood-hit state accused Assam government of not responding very prompt to the crisis. He said that the Centre had allocated Rs 344 crore under the disaster relief fund and there was no dearth of money for the immediate relief operation. The central government was ready to release more funds for the welfare of flood-hit people in the event of submission of specific demands by the state government, he said.
With inputs from PTI