Flood death toll reaches 204 in Assam and Bihar

Close to 11 million people affected in two states as rescue ops continue

Heavy rains in Nepal led to a worsening of the flood situation in Bihar, where the death toll has now reached 123, with over 8.1 million people affected in 12 of the state’s 30 districts. In Assam, while the number of affected districts now stands at 17 out of the state’s 33, the death toll has reached at 81 with five new casualties reported on Friday. Several districts in lower Assam continued to remain inundated, and over 2.7 million people are still affected by the second phase of flooding in the state.

Heavy rainfall triggered flood in Bihar’s Darbhanga district on Thursday.

In Darbhanga, the body of a young man who was attempting to shoot a Tik Tok video in flood waters, was retrieved on Friday. On July 23, Mohammad Afzal, with his friends Mohammad Qasim and Mohammad Sitare, all in their early 20s, were making a video for the popular mobile app. A slow-motion video of Qasim jumping into the floodwater has gone viral on social media. Afzal jumped in to save him. Though Qasim managed to reach safety, Afzal was swept away.

The combined death toll due to floods in Assam and Bihar, the two worst affected states, now stands at 204, while the total casualties in the northern and northeastern region, including Tripura and Meghalaya, is 218.

On Friday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced in the assembly that the state will send a memorandum seeking financial assistance for flood relief, and request a visit by central teams to assess the extent of damage.

“We will send a memorandum to the centre for additional assistance and a central team to assess the damage. It is in the process,” Kumar said.

Kumar said this in response to queries raised by opposition party Rashtriya Janata Dal over the assistance lent by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the centre. The Janata Dal (United) is part of the NDA.

Kumar had last week launched a direct benefit transfer scheme to provide financial assistance of Rs 6,000 to each affected family. A sum of Rs 427.43 crore has already been transferred to 7.12 lakh families, officials said.

“[In the 2017 floods] the state government spent Rs 2400 crore in gratuitous relief for 38 lakh families,” Kumar said in the assembly on Friday.

Earlier this week, Bihar’s leader of Opposition had demanded that the centre should declare floods in Bihar as natural calamity and sought a special package of Rs 10,000 crore.

In past few years, the Bihar government has not received any big financial package from the centre to tackle floods. In 2016, the state government had send a memorandum seeking Rs 4112 crore while in 2017, the state had sought assistance worth Rs 8500 crore. The central assistance to the state was lesser than the demand, officials said.

On Friday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat offered Rs 5 crore financial aid to the flood affected people of Assam over a telephone call with his Assam counterpart Sarbananda Sonowal. Earlier this week, Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that Assam has suffered infrastructure damage to the tune of nearly Rs 1000 crores due to floods this season.

On July 15, the Centre released Rs 251 crore to Assam State Disaster Response Force as grant towards central share of SDRF for 2019-20.

The National Centre for Hydrology and Meteorology, Bhutan releasing an advisory on Friday afternoon about very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in southern and eastern parts of the country. In Assam, an alert was sounded in Barpeta, Nalbari, Baksa, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Dhubri and South Salmara districts following release of water from the Kurichhu hydro power plant in Bhutan, which led to a rise in water level of several rivers downstream in Assam.

Over 150,000 people have been displaced by flood waters in the second phase of flooding in the state, and are taking shelter in 929 relief camps.

The Brahmaputra continued to flow above the danger mark at one place each in Jorhat and Dhubri districts while the Puthimari, Jia Bharali and Beki rivers also flowed over the red level at several places.

Meanwhile in neighbouring Bangaldesh, the death toll from monsoon storms rose to 104, with flood levels still rising in many parts of the country, officials said. About 20 people have died in 48 hours in one of the worst monsoons to hit the country, officials said.

In the Himalayan country of Nepal, floods and landslides caused by incessant monsoon rains have claimed at least 111 lives, left 67 people injured and destroyed properties worth $9 million across 64 districts, authorities said.