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Star athlete Hima Das makes appeal for flood-hit Assam

Last updated on: July 16, 2019 13:49 IST

People stand on a damaged embarkment washed out by the floods due to incessant rainfalls, at Hajo in Kamrup

IMAGE: People stand on a damaged embarkment washed out by the floods due to incessant rainfalls, at Hajo in Kamrup. Photograph: PTI Photo

India's rising track and field star Hima Das has made an appeal to help the state of Assam that is reeling under a deluge.

"Flood situation in our state Assam is very critical, 30 out of 33 districts are currently affected. So I would like to request big corporates and individuals to kindly come forward and help our state in this difficult situation," Hima tweeted.

 

According to the daily flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, one person was killed at Sissibargaon in Dhemaji district on Saturday.

At least seven people lost their lives in flood-related incidents in the state this year.

Till the weekend, over 14.06 lakh persons had been affected by the floods in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang, Baksa, Barpeta, Nalbari, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Goalpara, Kamrup, Morigaon, Hojai, Nagaon, Golaghat, Majuli, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Cacha and West Karbi Anglong districts, the ASDMA said.

Barpeta is the worst hit with 5.22 lakh people suffering, followed by Dhemaji (1.38 lakh people) and Morigaon (nearly 95,000 persons).

Hima is the first sportsperson to make an appeal of this sort.

The reigning World Youth Athletic champion had won her third medal in less than two weeks, when she claimed gold in the 200m event at the Kladno Athletics Meet in CzechRepublic on Saturday.

In her first competitive 200m race of the year, the 19-year-old Assam runner had clocked 23.65 seconds on her way to gold at the Poznan Athletics Grand Prix in Poland on July 2. After that, she won her second 200m gold at the Kutno Athletics Meet, also in Poland, on July 7 with a time of 23.97 seconds.

Hima Das

Rediff Sports Desk