The flood situation in Assam remained grave today with more than 12.65 lakh people affected in 16 districts as the toll rose to eight after a boy was washed away by the Brahmaputra.
Union Youth Welfare and Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today visited severely-hit Majuli island and made an aerial survey of Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts.
At Pomuagoan in Majuli island a 15-year-old boy Manas Protim Dutta was washed away by the strong currents of the Brahmaputra when he slipped and fell into the river when he tried to board a country boat to go to school yesterday, the police said.
As Pomuagoan remained cut-off from the rest of the island, people there were using country boats as the only means of transport, the sources said.
According to an official release, apart from the boy, seven other persons lost their lives in the current wave of flood, one each in Lakhimpur, Dhubri, Nalbari, Golaghat and Barpeta and two in Morigaon.
According to a government flood bulletin, 12,65,449 people were affected across 2,093 villages in 16 districts and 1,12,635,25 hectares of cropland damaged in the flood in the Brahmaputra.
The river was flowing above the danger level in Jorhat, Kamrup, Sonitpur, Goalpara, Dhubri, Dibrigarh, Lakhimpur, Sibsagar, Golaghat, Nagaon and Barpeta, the flood bulletin said.
The authorities have evacuated the marooned to safer places and 212 relief camps have been opened providing shelter to 1,63,052 inmates, it said.
The 16 flood-affected districts are Dhemaji, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Sivasagar, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Nalbari, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Morigaon, Nagaon, Kamrup, Dhubri, Kokrajhar and Karbi Anglong.
Sonowal visited Korotipar, Sonwal-Kachari, Kamalabari and Aoniati areas of Majuli island and assured the affected people that they would be resettled in safer places in the island.
Sonowal, who represents Assam in Parliament, also instructed the Deputy Commissioner of Jorhat and Subdivisional Officer (Civil) Majuli to send a report within two days to the Prime Minister on the flood situation there.
