2.8 lakh people marooned in Assam town for almost a week

Situation aggravated by miscreants who cut a passage through a strategic embankment to drain out excess water

GUWAHATI

Floodwaters have refused to drain out from a southern Assam town where about 2.8 lakh people have been marooned for almost a week.

On June 20, Silchar’s BJP legislator Dipayan Chakraborty sent an SOS to the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) to set up relief camps on the high platforms of the railway station in the town, the nerve-centre of the landlocked Bengali-dominated Barak Valley.

Without any trains to operate since mid-May when the arterial track through the adjoining hill district of Dima Hasao was damaged extensively, the NFR obliged. “Some 200 people have taken shelter on the platforms since June 21, and more are coming,” a railway spokesperson said on Thursday.

Railway authorities said the pressure would ease in a few days. About 80% of the 26.88 sq. km town remains flooded, an improvement though from the 95% a couple of days ago.

The headquarters of Cachar district, Silchar is about 310 km southeast of Guwahati.

“Among the 2.8 lakh affected people are our officers, staff, grocers, labourers and drivers. This has affected the relief service delivery and we have not been able to go to areas such as NH Road, Sharatpally and Das Colony, where the [water] current is still strong,” Cachar’s Deputy Commissioner, Keerthi Jalli, said after Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma made an aerial survey of the flood-hit district.