Thousands rendered homeless in northeast

IANS/Shillong/New Delhi

A flood-affected girl uses a submerged hand-pump to fetch drinking water at Dhuhibala village in the northeastern state of Assam

Units of the Indian Army have stepped up relief efforts in the northeastern states after swollen rivers caused devastation in the region, leaving over 75,000 people homeless yesterday in Meghalaya alone, an official said.The swollen Brahmaputra and Jingiram rivers submerged whole villages in Meghalaya. More than 15,000 houses went under a sea of floodwater, West Garo Hills’ district commissioner Pravin Bakshi said.The Jinjiram, one the major rivers in Garo Hills, caused havoc after it breached a major embankment, flooding low-lying areas.No loss of life has been reported so far.The district administration has sought boats to evacuate people from the flooded region with the help of civil defence and Home Guards.Bakshi said that 15 camps have been set up to accommodate the displaced people.A total of 122 relief and rescue teams have been deployed in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh where overflowing Brahmaputra and its tributaries have caused havoc, army spokesperson Veerendra Singh said in Delhi. Relief operations are underway in Sonitpur, Kamrup, Barpeta, Tinsukia, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Dhemaji, Baksa, Nalbari and Darrang areas in Assam, and Changlang in Arunachal Pradesh, according to Singh.The army teams, he said, were using 122 boats and outboard motors and 540 life jackets to rescue thousands of stranded people.So far, around 3,500 people have been rescued, while over a hundred injured have been given medical aid. Besides 180 food packets, around 3,000kg of ration provided by the civil administration have been distributed among people stranded in isolated areas. Helicopters are also being used for the relief work. “The army reconnaissance teams with the help of civil administration are identifying all affected areas to provide immediate relief to the people,” Singh said.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will make an aerial survey of some of the flood-affected areas of Assam today, a minister said, as the death toll has gone up to 61.“Barring last minute changes, the prime minister and the Congress president will come together. The VVIPs will directly fly to Jorhat where Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi will receive them,” the senior minister, who did not want to be named, said.He said that the prime minister and Gandhi are expected to reach Jorhat around 11am today and are likely to make a 30-minute aerial visit of some of the flood-affected areas of Upper Assam, including river island Majuli, which had witnessed its worst-ever floods since 1950.The two leaders will return to New Delhi in the evening.Gogoi, who was in the US for an official visit, has arrived in New Delhi. The chief minister has also convened an urgent meeting of his cabinet and top bureaucrats to discuss the flood situation and the VVIPs’ visit.