North East floods: Toll rises to 17 as heavy rainfall continues to trigger landslides
In the governing council meeting of the think tank NITI Aayog, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured assistance to the chief ministers of flood-affected states.
Four more people were killed in Assam and one in Manipur in flood-related incidents on Saturday, taking the toll in the region to 17, PTI reported. The situation has improved marginally in Tripura and Mizoram. The toll had risen to 12 on Friday.
In the governing council meeting of the think tank NITI Aayog, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured assistance to the chief ministers of flood-affected states.
Heavy rain continued to trigger landslides in several parts of Assam, the State Disaster Management Authority said. The floods have affected over 4.25 lakh people in the state’s Hojai, Karbi Anglong East, Karbi Anglong West, Golaghat, Karimganj, Hailakandi and Cachar districts.
As many as 716 villages are under water and 3,292 hectares of crop areas have been damaged.
Authorities have set up 213 relief camps and distribution centres in five districts. Over 1 lakh people have taken shelter in the relief camps.
Movement of trains has been suspended on the Lumding-Badarpur section because of a landslide between Bandarkhal and Damchara stations, the Northeast Frontier Railway said.
In Imphal, Manipur, the intensity of rain decreased on Saturday morning but the situation has not improved in other districts in the valley, officials told PTI. More than 1.8 lakh people have been affected by the floods in the state. The number of damaged houses in Manipur reached 22,624 on Friday.
In Tripura, over 40,000 people are stranded in 189 relief camps. In Mizoram, the water level of the Tlawng and Langkaih rivers is now receding, officials said.
Two national highways – NH37 that links Manipur to Assan, and NH2 that runs between Manipur and Myanmar – have caved in along the mountain areas, blocking heavy vehicle traffic for the past three days, The Hindu reported.
In Arunachal Pradesh, landslides triggered by heavy rain in West Kameng district blocked an important road at three places near the border with China, NDTV reported. Officials said it would take three days to reopen the road.