Assam villages, submerged in flood water for 1 month, wait for govt help

Several villages in Karimganj district, Assam, are submerged in flood water for a month now.

Guwahati, June 28: There seems to be no end to the plight of these villagers in Assam. A cluster of villages in the state's Karimganj district--around 450 km away from the capital city of Guwahati--is under flood water for a month now.

Unfortunately, till now no help was provided to the residents of these villages, who are fighting a lonely battle. The villages, located in the Nilam Bazaar revenue circle in the southern part of the state, bordering Bangladesh, have been washed away by several rounds of flash floods in the last few weeks.

Due to floods, thousands of people have lost their homes and have little access to food and drinking water. According to reports, around 85,000 people in 103 villages of the district are currently marooned.

Every year, the condition of these villages gets worse during monsoon as all the rivers of neighbouring Mizoram hills run into the valley in Karimganj before entering Bangladesh.

"For a month we have been facing flash floods, at least five waves of flash floods have ravaged our village and 250 families had to shift to higher grounds" 54-year-old Pradip Dey was quoted as saying by NDTV. Now, Dey and his family are looking to move to a safer place.

The villagers are mighty miffed with government's apathy towards them, as nobody cared to provide any sort of help to them to deal with large-scale destruction brought in by the rains.

"We are trapped amid water for a month and we are forced to live this way. Our children cannot go to school" said Surodhoni Malakar, another flood victim. Some of the flood victims have now shifted to nearby areas and are staying in relief camps.

"Hundreds of families had to shift, our villages are still marooned," said Minoti Das, who is in a relief camp for a fortnight.

Contrary to the allegations of the villagers, government officials claim that they are giving necessary help to all flood victims.

"We have given the relief to affected villages. Now, we will give relief materials to newly-affected areas. The Longai and Singla rivers are rising, so the flood situation might deteriorate further," Pradip Talukdar, deputy commissioner of Karimganj told NDTV.

More than a lakh people have been affected by floods in six districts of the state. The flood situation in Assam is still critical as several rivers are flowing above the danger mark.

OneIndia News