SILCHAR, June 2 - Amidst the constant rise of COVID-19 positive cases, many districts in the State are adversely affected due to floods. Along with other areas, heavy rains in the past few days has posed serious flood threats to Cachar district as well.
Although, officials are maintaining vigil on the water level of river Barak at the Annapurna Ghat here said that the rise is by 5 cm per hour ( 17.24 at 4 pm) against the danger level of 19.83 meters, heavy shower in last 24 hours has inundated many low-lying areas of the district affecting the embankments as well.
Minister of Water Resources Keshab Mahanta, in his recent visit to Barak Valley to assess COVID-19 situation had stressed on the repair work of embankments.
However, sources informed that among other areas, the dyke at Roypur under Borkhola constituency is most vulnerable.
In the words of Asit Deb, Executive Engineer at the Silchar division of Water Resources, �even as fund of Rs 18.60 crore under SOPD (FDR) has got the administrative approval in February for calling tender, the outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent lockdown has put the tasks at halt. The stretch of 1.2 km is extremely critical and there is no way we can execute the least temporary patchwork now.� He added to say that the downstream at Manikpur will be attended with some repair work.
Asked about repair work in other areas, Deb said the exit canals of Silchar town mainly the Longai khal has been cleared to ease the water flow. Also the Department is executing flood fighting work to prevent any untoward incident during the rainy season, he maintained.
�In the past 24 hours, we had 120 mm rainfall, but our men are working to unclog the canals and other outlets to streamline the flow of water,� Deb said.
It may be recalled that the Cachar District Administration held a meeting on flood preparedness on May 15. Deputy Commissioner-cum-chairperson, of District Disaster Management Authority, Keerthi Jalli, had presided over the meeting and taken some key decisions in regarding dykes, sluice gates etc. Also, the officials had discussed in detail measures regarding relief camp management and positioning of NDRF teams.
