The Assam government has started special flights for flood victims in Barak from Thursday. The ‘Fly Big’ company has been contracted to operate flights between Silchar and Guwahati in the next ten days. 3000 per head has been fixed. The government will subsidize the extra cost. The daily flight from Guwahati to Silchar will leave at 5 pm. The flight from Silchar to Guwahati will depart at 6:20 pm. Regular air fares cannot be increased, the centre said.
The Air Force personnel have taken the people trapped in Haflong to Silchar and Jorhaat even yesterday. The Air Force has rescued 35 railway workers from various remote railway stations in Dima Hasao. The aircraft arrived at Dima Hasao district from Jorhaat Air Force Base with 16 tons of food items. Twenty NDRF personnel from Guwahati were airlifted to Haflong with full equipment. The Indian Army, NDRF and SDRF have rescued about 15,000 people who got trapped.
Out of 35 districts in the state, 1929 villages in 29 districts are flooded. The number of flood victims is 7 lakh 17000. The official death toll is 9 as of now. Over 58,000 hectares of agricultural land has been damaged. About 50,000 people have taken shelter in 217 relief camps.
Chief Minister Himanta Bishwa Sharma said the National Highway Authority had repaired a road and started moving goods vehicles. If there is no new landslide, the two roads will be opened soon. Kachar has 22,000 metric tons of rice and food grains and oil reserves for the next 7-10 days. So the people of Barak have no reason to panic. He added that the victims would be compensated according to government rules. The Centre has approved Rs 1,000 crore for flood relief. Rs 150 crore has been sent to the districts to deal with the floods. So there is no shortage of money. Talks have been held with Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The centre will give more if needed.
Gyanendra Dev Tripathi, chief executive officer of the disaster management department, said it would take at least 45 days for the railway line to be repaired, even if there was no new landslide or rain due to the damage caused by the collapse of Dima Hasao. Ministers Ashok Singhal and Parimal Shukla Vaidya arrived in Silchar on Thursday morning. Mr. Parimal visited the relief camps in Karimganj and Hailakandi. Singhal visited various flood affected areas of Kachar district. He said that the stock of daily necessities in Kachar district is satisfactory.
There is no crisis of petrol and diesel. The Barak River has not risen since Wednesday afternoon. But the people of Silchar are worried about the erosion of river embankments in different places. In Panchgram of Hailakandi district, the water of Barak river is flowing on the national highway. As a result, traffic on the road has been banned. Roads in Mizoram and Manipur were closed on Wednesday. Cars from Tripura and Silchar cannot come to Panchgram for water.