6 die in thunder, landslides
Life disrupted in Barak Valley Manipur combats flood threat
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A lone farmer walks across an inundated field in Mayong in Assam’s Morigaon district as an overcast sky threatens to open on the rain-replete state. (AP)
Silchar, April 22 : Rain and thundersqualls claimed six lives in lower Assam and disrupted life in the Barak Valley, uprooting trees and snapping electricity lines, as neighbouring Manipur prepared for a possible flood.
Bahrul Islam, 25, of Basbari village and Tilak Roy, 30, of Abadi village in Bongaigaon, died when the thundersquall struck them last night.
Eleven more sustained injuries.
In Dhubri’s Bilasipara, a 12-year-old boy, Abdul Ali, died when his house collapsed last night.
Nine-year-old Nurul Islam, a student of Class II of Ghogagaon village in Nalbari, died when a thundersquall struck him, while 14-year-old Runama Begum of the same family was seriously injured on Monday.
In Chirang, 30-year-old Tuli Barman died, while five others were injured in a thundersquall in Borlai village last Friday. A 38-year-old man, Bakkar Ali, of Khoraghat village, who sustained serious injuries in a landslide on Sunday, died in Dhubri Civil Hospital on Monday.
Trees were uprooted, roofs blown away and homes destroyed as a storm swept through Dhubri on Monday.
“Till now, no compensation has been provided by the administration. We have been living somehow in a makeshift house erected in place of our uprooted homes,” said Kamal Uddin who has lost his house and two cows in the storm.
Bogribari, in the district has been particularly vulnerable to landslides.
In Hailakandi, a 24-year-old wage earner, Harish Chandra Das, was killed when his thatched house collapsed in Ramnathpur village on the Hailakandi-Mizoram border after two days of rain.
Cachar alone received 181.5mm of rain, forcing residents to remain confined indoors.
A Nor’wester that hit Karimganj early on Monday morning damaged 700 houses and uprooted trees.
There has been no electricity for more than two days after 33KV and 11KV power lines connecting the district with the transmission hub in Badarpur were damaged by serial cyclones that began on March 31.
Nearly two lakh people of the town are being forced to go without water since there was no power supply at the plant of the PHE department since Monday.
The senior manager of the Cachar electrical circle, Dipankar Nath, said repairs have begun on a war-footing with power minister Pradyut Bordoloi assuring the ASEB in the Barak zone that funds would not be a constraint.
The storm on Monday that lasted for 15 minutes destroyed property worth Rs 36 crore, said additional deputy commissioner of Karimganj, M.K. Das.
Vast areas of the district on its southern and western fringes are under water as the clogged drainage network failed to deliver.
The worst affected areas are Sarat Pally, Sri Ma Road, National Highway Roadand Sonai Road.
In the wee hours of today, the Border Road Task Force restored NH 44 linking south Assam, Tripura and Mizoram with the rest of the country through Meghalaya.
The highway was blocked by mounds of debris that came rolling down from a hill near the road.
At least 650 vehicles were stranded at Malidahar village in western Cachar following the landslide. As the rain continued unabated, allegations of residents being deprived of compensation in the disaster season flowed.
“A few years ago, three labourers who died while working in a quarry have still not received compensation from the government,” said Ajgar Ali Sheikh in Bogribari in Dhubri.
When inquired into the allegation, a police official said Bogribari was carved out of Dhubri and included in the Bodoland Territorial Areas District. Since the incident was reported in Bogribari police station, the report was sent to Kokrajhar.
“Once the report reaches me on the extent of damages caused, arrangement for distribution of relief materials could be made. But in case of casualties, it will take time to get the compensation sanctioned to the victim’s family,” Bilasipara subdivisional officer (civil), Dhrubajyoti Das, said.
Neighbouring Manipur, on the other hand, is busy strengthening embankments of major rivers like Nambul, Imphal, Thoubal and Iril keeping in mind the early rains this year.
Every year, the rivers overflow their banks and destroy standing crops.
The flood control minister, N. Biren Singh, said waste material, siltation and encroachment of the embankments have led rivers to overflow.
Biren Singh said once funds are sanctioned by the state government under the Centre’s Special Plan Assistance, the strengthening work would begin in full swing.
“This time we expect to reduce the impact of flood as we have already chalked out a plan for free flow of the river by clearing the beds and also strengthening the walls,” he said.
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