GUWAHATI, June 14 - A day after the great deluge that affected almost all localities of the city, Guwahati slowly limped back to normalcy even as the number of deaths was officially put at four following recovery of two more bodies today.
However, the Kamrup (Metro) district administration has not included the name of a lady, who died due to non-availability of medical facilities during the yesterday�s deluge, in the list of the dead ones.
Floodwater receded from most parts of the city. The temporary cessation in the rainfall activities during past 24 hours helped in the improvement of the flash-flood-related situation. The district administration pressed into service pumps at low-lying areas like Nabin Nagar and Anil Nagar, to flush out the accumulated rainwater.
According to the State Government data, 2,000 residents of Guwahati were affected by flash-flood, including the 1,200 people in Dispur revenue circle area and another 800 in Guwahati revenue circle area.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal offered his condolences at the loss of life caused by yesterday�s flash floods in Guwahati.
He has directed the Kamrup (Metro) district administration, District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) and Guwahati Development Department to be ready with relief materials and reach out to the affected people in case of any exigency. He also instructed officials to visit the affected areas and extend all possible help to the affected people.
Kamrup (Metro) Deputy Commissioner Dr M Angamuthu said the body of one Pintu Das (24) was recovered from the Bahini river at the Jonali locality of RG Baruah Road by SDRF today. Das, who hails from Dibrugarh, had slipped and fell into the Bahini river last evening while walking on the footpath of the RG Baruah Road.
The body of one Deben Nath (58) was recovered from the Silsako Beel. Nath, who hails from Satgaon locality and was an employee of the Assam State Secretariat, was missing since yesterday.
The administration has declared an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the families of each of the deceased persons.
Pushan Kalita, a Class VIII student of Maria Montessori School, and Anowar Hussain, a rickshaw-puller, had died after being electrocuted yesterday near the Assam State Zoo.
The district administration has ordered an enquiry into the death of Pintu Das. The enquiry will be conducted by Gunajeet Kashyap, Additional District Magistrate of Kamrup (Metro). This follows the enquiry ordered into the deaths of Kalita and Hussain, ordered yesterday.
At Ganga Path in Hengrabari, a portion of a house was badly damaged after a guard wall of a nearby compound collapsed, while at Kharghuli, landslide blocked a bylane. In Fatasil Ambari also, a house was affected by the collapse of a wall. However, nobody was hurt in these incidents.
�All the responding agencies have attended to the incidents. The residents of those areas have been asked to remain alert. A standing order has been issued to all the circle officers to inspect landslide-prone areas under their jurisdiction and evacuate the vulnerable families to safer zones,� Dr Angamuthu said.
Meanwhile, a lady named Chinmaya Chakraborty (68), a resident of the severely waterlogged Anil Nagar area, reportedly died yesterday after she could not be shifted to a hospital for treatment. The lady was suffering from some ailment. Her name has hence not been included in the official list of those killed by the flash-flood.
Officials said that the government machinery in Guwahati has been put on alert and agencies like SDRF, NDRF, GMC, forest department, APDCL and police are engaged in tackling the situation. A relief camp has been set up at Rajgarh in the Rastrabhasa Hindi LP School.
While water levels may have receded from many localities, major roads in the city witnessed long traffic jams today also. Besides, mud and slush continued to make life miserable for the residents of many city localities. A portion of the footpath has been eroded near the official bungalow of the Kamrup (Metro) DC.
There are also apprehensions about post-flood epidemics and the health authorities are monitoring the situation.
Regarding complaints that at many places, low hanging power cables and open transformers pose a serious threat to the citizens, as witnessed from the incident near the Assam State Zoo yesterday, a senior APDCL official said as per protocol, wherever there is threat of submergence to transformers and other electricity equipment, power is immediately cut off as water level rises.
He said APDCL is cooperating with the enquiry instituted by the district administration in to the deaths of Kalita and Hussain.
Meanwhile, the Kamrup (Metro) district administration today lodged an FIR with the Dispur police station on yesterday�s incident of electrocution of Kalita and Hussain near the Assam State Zoo and recovery of loose wires in the vicinity.
