Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal undertook an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas in the state. Singh also visited relief camps and met state government officials today.
After Singh concluded his visit, the state government announced Rs. 4 lakh compensation to the victims of the Assam floods. According to government officials, 27 people have died due to the rains.
Singh visited the Bhagatgaon camp set up for the flood-affected residents of Morigaon district. He also tweeted through the official twitter handle @HMOIndia saying, "NDRF(National Disaster Response Force) teams are working on the ground. The NDRF along with SDRF (State Disaster Response Force) and Army have saved more than 6000 lives in Assam."
In another tweet, he said that an inter-ministerial team will soon visit Assam.
Heavy floods in Assam have affected at least 18 lakh people in 22 districts of the state. People in more than 3,300 villages are struggling with the situation. After many houses were submerged, people resorted to living in make-shift boats. About 2.25 lakh people have taken shelter in the 600 relief camps set up by the authorities.
The affected districts are Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Jorhat, Bongaigaon, Dhemaji, Barpeta, Goalpara, Dhubri, Darrang, Morigaon, Sonitpur, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Kokrajhar, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Biswanath, Kamrup Metropolitan, Chirang, Nagaon, Kamrup and South Kamrup.
The administration has successfully rescued families who were in danger of being swept away after surging water breached the Bongaon embankment at Majuli River Island in Jorhat. Earlier reports had indicated that six baby rhinos were also rescued from Kaziranga National Park by a team of Assam forest department.
CM Sonowal had said that ample funds were dispersed to the affected districts, and that officials were remaining vigilant for any breach of an embankment or other such vulnerable sites that may accentuate the crisis.
