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Nearly 300 houses of tea garden submerged

By The Assam Tribune

DIBRUGARH, Sept 7 - Flash flood from the Brahmaputra has inundated nearly three hundred houses in Oakland tea estate and adjacent Kachuani village including the tea estate�s hospital and a primary school. Fifteen houses were found to be demolished as mud plastered walls of the houses were seen shattered.

Ironically no rescue or evacuation has been initiated by the district administration although the submerged area under Dibrugarh (East) Revenue Circle is only about 28 kilometres from the city centre here. Families on their own were seen moving out of their submerged houses in makeshift boats made of plantain stems. Unaffected families of the tea estate have also taken to shelter some families even as some have sought shelter in the school. Cattles and birds of some families have also been washed away, Sukru Murah, an elderly man told this newspaper.

Although the administration was informed about the flash flood, affected people said no one had visited the affected area. It is gathered that only a few kilograms of rice was dispatched today for distribution to the affected families as relief measures. Neither the concerned authorities nor the tea garden management has taken any step to set up relief camps for the affected families. A group of school-going children were spotted on a makeshift plantain stem boat when this newsperson visited the area. The children were returning from the school after finding it closed due to flood.

Social activist and former ATTSA leader, Teros Gowala said that people are in need of safer and hygienic places to stay. �Some are still moving out for jobs from their flooded homes by wading across the waters or using makeshift boats� he said.

The hospital which could have been most useful at the moment for the flood hit families is also closed since past few days.

It needs mention here that the Oakland tea garden stretch along with its adjacent villages and tea gardens are exposed to the fury of the Brahmaputra, as the area along the mighty river does not have embankment. The area is also erosion-prone.

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