GUWAHATI: The flood situation in Assam continued to improve with the water maintaining a receding trend, though 1.96 lakh people in 15 districts are still affected by the deluge, an official bulletin said on Tuesday.
Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi reviewed the schemes of flood and erosion management in the state.
Flood waters ebbed from Barpeta and South Salmara districts since Monday and the number of affected people decreased by 1.93 lakh, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said in the bulletin.
On Sunday, 19 districts were under water and 8.54 lakh people were hit by the calamity.
This year's flood and landslides have claimed 136 lives across the state so far.
While 110 people died in flood-related incidents, 26 were killed in landslides.
Goalpara remained the worst-hit district with around 1.05 lakh people affected, followed by Morigaon with 28,126 and Baksa with 15,000 affected people, the ASDMA said.
The bulletin said that 325 villages and 23,592 hectares of cropland are still under water.
The authorities are running 26 relief camps and distribution centres in seven districts where 4,129 people are currently lodged.
The Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger mark at Dhubri town and at Neamatighat in Jorhat district, while its tributaries Jia Bharali and Kopili are also flowing above the red mark at various places.
Roads and many other infrastructure have been damaged at various places in Chirang, Udalguri and Sivasagar districts, while massive erosions have been witnessed at different places of Udalguri, Baksa and Sivasagar districts, the ASDMA said.
Meanwhile, Governor Jagdish Mukhi held a meeting with senior officials in view of the largescale disaster caused by the Beki river.
He reviewed the progress of implementation of various flood management programmes with Additional Chief Secretary (Water Resources) Syedin Abbasi, CEO of Flood and River Erosion Management Agency of Assam (FREMAA) Siddharth Singh and others.
Beki being a transboundary river, heavy rains in upper reaches sometimes cause it to overflow leading to large scale erosion on both sides of its course in Barpeta and Baksa districts, a Raj Bhavan statement said.
Mukhi who visited Baksa and Barpeta on July 30 convened the meeting to chart out a modus operandi to tame the river and protect the people living alongside.
In the meeting, Abbasi informed the governor that the Beki has been discharging a large volume of water from Mathanguri onwards as Hakua and Manas channels were choked.
The situation further aggravated during the flood of 2007 leading to downstream devastation, including imminent threat to Manas National Park, the statement said.
As the erosion perpetrated by the river continued unabated which threatened the strategic road to Manas National park at Safakamar area, under Barpeta Water Resources Division, the governor took stock of various protective measures.