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Landslides claim 3 more lives in city

By Staff reporter

GUWAHATI, June 27 � Three persons, including two minors, died in yet another incident of landslide near Itabhata area of Dhirenpara in Guwahati today, raising the death toll to 10 in the span of last two months, compelling the State Disaster Management Authority to initiate plans to shift families residing in vulnerable areas.

Today�s incident occurred when loose soil crushed a thatched house located on the Tila Bazar hillside in Dhirenpara area around 1:30 am.

According to official sources, the Fire Services and the State Disaster Response Force received a call at 1:40 am and a team led by RC Bhakat arrived at the spot. However, weather conditions were such that operations could not be started immediately. The team finally started retrieving work at 5:40 in the morning and ended its operation around 7:30 am.

Sources in Fire Services told The Assam Tribune that there is every possibility of similar incidents occurring in the area.

The deceased identified as Marzina Begum (40), Zamina Islam (13) and Mainu Islam (7), who were asleep at the time of the landslide, died on the spot.

�Marzina and her two children were sleeping in the same room, while her husband Jalal Ali was occupying an adjacent room,� sources stated.

According to figures available with the district administration (Metro), 33 persons had lost their lives due to landslides in the last six years.

Dhrubajyoti Das, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup (Metro) persons told media that the administration has chalked out both short-and long-term landslide mitigation projects, which are being implemented.

Blaming it on the unscientific way of cutting hills and construction in the hilly areas, Das opined that the people living in vulnerable areas in all the 19 hills of Guwahati will be temporarily shifted to a safer place till the rainy season ends.

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