Mail News Service
Guwahati, July 2 : Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, made an aerial survey of flood affected areas of Assam today. He along with Sonia Gandhi, Chief Minister Gagoi made an aerial survey of the flood affected areas of Jorhat, Dhemaji and Lakhimrpur districts. He witnessed the extensive damage that the floods have caused. The people of Assam are facing one of the worst floods in recent times. These floods have led to loss of lives and have afflicted considerable damage to crops, embankments, roads, and other infrastructure. About 77 people have died and 5 are missing and more than 2,000 villages and over 19 lakh people have been affected.
Till today, 77 people have been killed and nearly 20 lakhs people have been affected by the floods in Assam as the state continues to experience the worst calamity since the second week of June. The present calamity is said to be the worst since the 1998 floods.
All Assam Students Union (AASU) is not happy with the Prime Minister for not declaring the present Assam floods as ‘national calamity’ while the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) lamented that just Rs 500 crore is too small an amount for a big magnitude calamity like the present one.
Besides the human casualties large number of animals have also been killed by the floods including domestic and wild mostly from Kaziranga National Park (KNP).
Nearly 20 lakh people are rendered homeless from over 2000 villages in Assam since mid June.
Assam has since mid-June been experiencing the worst floods since 1998. Incessant rainfall across the state and the surrounding hills has deepened the crisis leaving 77 people dead and 19.5lakh people homeless in more than 2,000 villages.
Assam government has opened 768 relief camps for thousands of flood affected people.
Army and National Disaster Relief Force personnel have since June 27 rescued more than 8,000 marooned people. In some areas of Tinsukia and Sonitpur districts, the flood-affected people had to be airlifted.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/pm-announces-rs-500-cr-assistance-to-assam/
