Rainwater flowing down from the hills of Dima Hasao district and heavy showers in the wee hours of Saturday caused flash floods at Lumding in central Assam’s Hojai district though the overall flood situation continued to improve.
The Harlongfar river was flowing above the danger level, while areas like Padagani, Dakhin Lumding, Nabin Pally, Chandmari, Sankar Pally and Julanpul in Lumding were inundated.
Lanka circle field officer Saponjyoti Debnath said, “Around 5am, water entered some areas in Lumding but it started receding by noon. The situation is under control now. According to official records, 11 families have been affected. The district administration is on the alert and an SDRF team has been kept on the standby to cope with any situation.”
“The railway tracks at Lumding has not been affected,” an NFR official said.
About 1.22 lakh people are still affected by the deluge in 10 districts as 23 revenue circles remain partially inundated. Altogether 3,765 people are taking shelter in 23 relief camps in Barpeta, Chirang, Morigaon, Nagaon and Jorhat districts.
The Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger level at Neematighat in Jorhat, the Burhi Dihing at Khowang in Dibrugarh, the Disang at Nanglamuraghat in Sivasagar and the Jia Bharali at NT Road crossing in Sonitpur district.
Besides, 17,563 hectares of cropland is still submerged in Dhemaji, Barpeta, Morigaon, Hojai, Jorhat, Charaideo and Dibrugarh districts. The number of cattle affected was 41,585 along with 16,400 small animals and 40,434 poultry.
In Upper Assam’s Golaghat district, the situation improved as water level of the major rivers was receding. Kapahuating, Bokalai and Moutgaon villages have been submerged but no one was in relief camp. About 15 hectares of cropland in Golaghat revenue circle are still under water.
The Brahmaputra was flowing 0.04 metres above its danger level of 75m but was receding. The Dhansiri was flowing 0.73m below its danger level of 78.42m but was showing a rising trend.
In Dibrugarh district, the floodwaters affected 1,618 people under Tingkong, Tengakhat and Naharkatia revenue circles in the last 24 hours. Nine villages were submerged. The administration has set up two relief distribution centres at Tingkong and Tengakhat.
In Goalpara district, 45.88km of roads have been affected, including a bridge. According to the flood damages report by executive engineer Padmananda Choudhury, the PWD department requires Rs 92 lakh for repair of roads and Rs 7.59 crore for permanent restoration.
Classes began normally on Thursday since all relief camps set up in schools were emptied and cleaned after inmates returned home.
A delegation of the Hojai unit of All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam along with Hojai MLA Shiladitya Deb, handed over Rs 20,500 to chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal for the chief minister’s relief fund on Friday.
Additional reporting by Nikhil Mundra in Hojai, Sanjoy Hazarika in Bokakhat, Avik Chakraborty in Dibrugarh and Sofikul Ahmed in Goalpara
