More than 6.6 lakh people spread over 27 districts of Assam, have been hit by the floods triggered by pre-monsoon rains in the state. Nine people have died.
More than 48,000 people have been shifted to 248 relief camps.

Hojai and Cachar are the worst-hit districts. More than 1 lakh people have been affected in each district.The army has rescued more than 2,000 people trapped in Hojai district as part of ongoing rescue efforts.

Dima Hasao district in south Assam remains cut off for the fifth day today. Landslides triggered by rain have cut off road and rail links to Dima Hasao.

It has also snapped road and rail connectivity to the Barak Valley as well as vital parts of Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur since Sunday.

The Assam government will provide financial assistance of ₹ 4 lakh each to the families of those who died.

The government has decided on a partnership with regional airline “Flybig” to operate airplanes from Barak Valley. The ticket price has been fixed at ₹ 3,000, the government will bear the additional charges, sources said.

In flood hit Assam, the army, National Disaster Response Force, NDRF and State Disaster Response Force, SDRF are pressed into rescue operations. The state government has also asked the Indian Air Force to airdrop essential food items in worst hit Dima Hasao district by today. 

Over four lakh people are affected due to floods and landslides in 26 districts while 8 persons lost their lives. About 40 thousand people are shifted to temporary relief camps. Dima Hasao, Hojai and Barak valley are the worst affected areas.

Chief Secretary Jishnu Baruah held a review meeting with senior officials in Guwahati mostly on the prevailing flood situations at Dima Hasao, Hojai and Barak valley. The meeting asked National Highways Authority of India, NHAI to restore highway connectivity between Guwahati to Haflong. The Chief Secretary also asked Deputy Commissioners of affected districts to ensure availability of essential food items. Surging water hugely damaged roads, river embankments and crop lands.

Meanwhile, Northeast Frontier, N.F. Railway said, massive land slide in over 50 locations spreading all over the Lumding – Badarpur hill section has completely disrupted the rail communication of the hilly states of Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and South Assam with rest of the country since last Saturday. The railway is working on war foot to restore rail connectivity.

Under the influence of strong southwesterly moisture winds from the Bay of Bengal, widespread rains and thunderstorms are likely to persist over North-Eastern India between May 16-20, 2022, as per the weather bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The IMD also informed that rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms/lightning and heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places are very likely over Assam during this period. Rainfall amounts will generally run 50-80mm/day over those areas during the next five days, and an excess of 100 mm/day is possible over Assam and Meghalaya on Monday and Tuesday.

Meanwhile, at least three persons have been reported to be dead so far and over 41,000 people have been affected across Cachar district due to floods resulting from torrential rain over the past few days. Sources informed that the casualties have been reported from Borkhola constituency, a major part of which has been worst hit due to the inundation caused by the overflowing Jatinga River.

Borkhola MLA Misbahul Islam Laskar, while talking to The Assam Tribune informed that among the dead include a minor girl from near the Veterinary Centre in Borkhola. Two bodies were also recovered, among them one was aged around 50 years while the other was recovered from Dholchora Part-I. “I had visited the sites and the condition is beyond description. Borkhola constituency has been severely affected due to the flood. A water supply scheme which was opened recently has been washed away. While people, mostly farmers rushed to safer locations, the quantum of reaped crop stored by farmers for selling to the concerned Government outlets was damaged in the flood. I am concerned with the fresh rise in the water level of Jatinga River since this morning,” the legislator said.

Union Home minister Amit Shah said that Assam has witnessed the journey of progress and development during the past 6 years.

He said people of Assam fully supported the steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for the development of the state.

Mr. Shah made this remark in Guwahati on Tuesday in an event to celebrate the first anniversary of the Himanta Biswa Sarma government.

He said previously Assam was known for militancy, violence and other such activities but after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, the state achieved all round progress.

Mr. Shah said that in the past 6 years, there has been extensive decline in illegal immigration to Assam. He said that it would be completely wiped out soon after the completion of remaining works.

Mr. Shah further said that Mr. Modi has given special attention to the development of North East region and he visited the region 50 times. He said that after 30 years, AFSPA was removed from 60 percent areas in Assam and over 9 thousand militants laid down their arms in last 6 years. Union ministers Sarbananda Sonowal and Rameshwar Teli among also attended the event.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday vouched for Uniform Civil Code and said that if justice is to be given to Muslim women, then this law has to be implemented across the country.

Talking to the media in the capital Delhi, Sarma said that every Muslim woman in the country wants the Uniform Civil Code to be implemented at the earliest. ”This is not our issue, but every Muslim woman in the country wants that UCC should be implemented because no Muslim woman wants her husband to live with 3 other wives,” he added.

Notably, the debate on Uniform Civil Code has started again across the country. First of all, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat had talked about implementing it in his state. Since Uttarakhand, there has been a demand to implement it in many BJP ruled states. However, the opposition is still not unanimous on this issue. However, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board is already opposing the Uniform Civil Code.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged the youth to abandon the path of militancy and work for the development of the country. He was addressing a massive rally on Peace, Unity and Development at Loring-Thepi village around 75 kilometres from Diphu, the headquarter town of Karbi-Anglong Autonomous district in Assam on Thursday.

Mr. Modi said that the Peace Accord which was signed with the six militant groups of this district in September last year, solved the decades-old militancy problems of this area. He said that under the historic Peace Accord over 1,000 militants abjured violence and joined the mainstream of society and government is rehabilitating all the surrendered militants.

Earlier, the Prime Minister laid the foundation for a veterinary college, agricultural college and two model degree colleges for the district. Mr. Modi said that these educational institutions will provide better education for the local youth apart from more job opportunities.

Mr Modi informed that under the Special Development Package, as part of the Peace Accord 1,000 crore rupees will be provided by the Union Government and Assam Government for this district. The Prime Minister said that Union Government is working for the welfare of the tribal people of the district and other areas of the state and Karbi Anglong district will be a developed district in a very short time.

The Prime Minister said that peace and normalcy is returning to Assam and as a result the Union Government has removed the Armed Forces Special Power Act from 23 districts of the state and hoped that very soon the whole of North Eastern states will be free from militancy.

Mr. Modi informed that the decades-old border issue of Assam with the neighbouring states will resolve soon with the initiatives of the Union Government and the State Governments. The Prime Minister today launched the ‘Amrit Sarovar Scheme’ for Assam at Karbi-Anglong District. Under this scheme a total of 2,985 community ponds will be constructed all over the state. These community ponds will provide water and income generation for the rural population.

Assam Chief Minister while addressing the rally said that this is a historic moment for the Karbi-Anglong district as the Prime Minister visited this area after a long time. He also informed that a University and an airport will also come up in this district as part of the Peace Accord.

Later, the Prime Minister reached Assam Medical College in Dibrugarh and dedicated the Dibrugarh Cancer Hospital and six other Cancer Care Hospitals to the nation. These included Cancer Hospitals at Barpeta, Tezpur, Jorhat, Darrang, Kokrajhar and Lakhimpur from Khanikar Field, Dibrugarh. He also laid the foundation stones for another seven Cancer Care Hospitals across the state virtually from Dibrugarh.

They included the new ones coming up at Goalpara, Dhubri, Nagaon, Golaghat, Sibsagar, Tinsukia and Nalbari. Assam Cancer Care Foundation, a joint venture of Government of Assam and Tata Trusts, is executing a project to build South Asia’s largest affordable cancer care network with 17 Cancer care hospitals spread across the state at a cost of 4,000 crore rupees. Under the Phase-I of the project, out of 10 hospitals, the construction of seven hospitals have been completed while three hospitals are at various level of construction. Phase-II of the project will witness construction of seven new cancer hospitals. Presently, the construction of Cancer Care hospitals at Guwahati, Silchar and Diphu is going on.

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said that Cancer hospitals in Assam that were dedicated to nation today and the ones for which foundation stone was laid today, will augment health care capacities in Northeast as well as South Asia. Acknowledging that cancer has been a big problem not only in Assam, but also in the North East, he said, the poorest and middle class families are the most affected by this. Mr Modi complimented the Assam Chief Minister and Union Minister Mr Sonowal and Tata Trust for taking many steps to address this long-pending problem in Assam. He said that this year’s Budget’s has envisaged a 1,500 crore rupees scheme Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North-East (PM-DeVINE). Under the scheme too, cancer treatment is a focus area and a facility is proposed for Guwahati also.

Elaborating on the government’s vision for the health care sector, the Prime Minister talked about ‘Swasthya Ke Saptrishis’. The effort of the government is that disease itself does not arise. The yoga, fitness-related programmes are going on for this reason, he said. Second, if the disease occurs, it should be known in the early stages. For this, lakhs of new testing centres are being built across the country. The third focus is that people should have better first aid facilities near their homes. For this, Primary Health Centres are being improved. The fourth effort is that the poor should get free treatment in the best hospital. For this, under schemes like Ayushman Bharat, free treatment up to five lakh rupees is being given by the Government of India. The fifth focus is to minimize the dependence on big cities for good treatment. For this, the government is making unprecedented investments on health infrastructure. On the sixth point of the vision, the Prime Minister said, the government is addressing the shortfall in the number of doctors. In the last seven years, more than 70 thousand new seats have been added for MBBS and PG. The government is also treating more than five lakh Ayush doctors at par with allopathic doctors.

The seventh focus of the government is digitization of health services. The effort of the government is to get rid of long lines for treatment, to get rid of the problems in the name of treatment. For this, many schemes have been implemented, he added. Mr Modi emphasized that the effort is that the citizens of the whole country can get the benefits of the schemes of the Central Government, anywhere in the country, there should be no restriction for that. This is the spirit of ‘One Nation, One Health’. He mentioned, this spirit gave strength to the country even in the biggest epidemic of 100 years, gave strength to deal with the challenge.

The Prime Minister said that exorbitant cost of cancer treatment was a big barrier in the mind of people. Women particularly, avoided treatment as it had the potential of pushing family into debt and penury. Government is making cancer drugs affordable by reducing the cost of many medicines to almost half, saving at least 1,000 crore rupees of the patients. More than 900 medicines are now available at affordable rates in Jan Aushadhi Kendras. Under Ayushman Bharat Schemes many beneficiaries are cancer patients.

The Prime Minister said, Ayushman Bharat and Wellness Centres are ensuring early detection of cancer cases. More than 15 crore people have undergone cancer screening in Wellness Centres in Assam and other parts of the country. The Prime Minister appreciated the Assam Government for improving medical infrastructure in the state. He reiterated Central Government’s commitment to ensure all facilities from oxygen to ventilators in Assam.
The Central and Assam Government are working sincerely to give a better life to lakhs of families working in tea gardens. From free ration to the facilities available under the ‘Har Ghar Jal Yojana’, the Assam Government is reaching the families in tea gardens rapidly, he said.

Governor Jagdish Mukhi, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma and Health Minister Keshav Mahanta, Patron of the Tata Group Ratan Tata, Union Ministers Sarbananda Sonowal and Rameswar Teli along with former Chief Justice of India and Rajya Sabha Member Ranjan Gogoi were present on this occasion.