Morigaon, July 11 (PTI): One person was killed after being swept away by flood waters in Assams Morigaon district while the situation in five other affected districts remained "critical".
About 1.35 lakh people have been hit by the devastating floods that have distroyed embankments and roads.
The deceased belonged to Bhuragaon circle, which is facing a serious threat as the raging waters of the Brahmaputra river have eroded the rock spur of Kupatimari portion of its embankment, Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kumar said.
The erosion is of serious concern and the water resource department has been detailed to work round-the-clock to protect it, he said.
The situation in flood-ravaged Mayong revenue circle is also critical as 60 villages under Pokoriya and Ghagua local revenue units are inundated, affecting over 70,000 people, Kumar said, adding mechanised boats were used to evacuate them.
The six districts affected by the floods are Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Morigaon, Barpeta, Jorhat and Dhemaji.
Flood waters also damaged embankments in Lakhimpur districts Bhoroluwa, Boloma and Lothujan areas, besides at Gayan Gaon in Jorhat district, sources in Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said.
PWD road culverts were also breached in Lakhimpur district, they said.
Food and essential items were distributed by the district administrations and relief camps have been set up for deluge-hit people, the sources added.
North East India receives deficient monsoon rains
Agartala, July 11 (IANS): Except Mizoram and Sikkim, most parts of northeast India have so far experienced deficient monsoon rains, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday.
Mizoram and Sikkim recorded average rainfall while the other northeastern states - Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura - recorded around 35 per cent deficient rains, said the IMD report.
Until Sunday evening, Manipur recorded 73 per cent deficient rainfall, followed by Meghalaya (58 per cent), Tripura (38 per cent), Nagaland (37 per cent), Assam (25 per cent) and Arunachal Pradesh (12 per cent).
"Among the IMD's four regions, the rainfall deficiency in the eastern and northeastern region of the country has been a whopping 21 per cent," the report added.
The IMD's eastern and northeastern region comprises West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and eight northeastern states. Jharkhand and Bihar recorded 18 per cent deficient rainfall so far while West Bengal recorded four per cent shortfall in rains.
IMD Director Dilip Saha told IANS: "Due to lack of depression and low pressure circulation in the northeastern region, the region has so far recorded scarce rainfall. However, the deficiency would be covered in the remaining part of the monsoon."
In the northeast, the normal monsoon period is June to September and sometimes it continues until October 10, Saha said.
The IMD report said that heavy rain is very likely to occur in most parts of the northeastern region by July 14.
An expert of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) said deficient rains would not affect crops in the Northeast as there was good pre-monsoon rainfall recorded in most parts of the region.
