TURA: In the face of Wednesday’s cyclonic storm that caused extensive damage to homes across the Garo Hills region, the state government held a review meeting at Tura circuit house on Thursday to assess the situation and the rehabilitation process being taken up for the affected people.
Adviser to the chief minister of the state and MLA of North Tura, Thomas A Sangma met with district officials and various department heads to review the works currently underway for the storm affected and was briefed by West Garo Hills deputy commissioner, Ram Singh, Tura Municipal Board Chairman, J D Sangma, Heads of government line departments and other district officials.
While directing the officials to assess the extent of damage caused by the thunderstorm and the measures undertaken to restore normalcy to the affected people of the region, he also urged the district administration to hasten the preparation of all necessary reports and dispatch the same to the government so that the required relief funds can be obtained at the earliest.
The Deputy Commissioner, in his brief report, informed that around 161 villages including 594 Households, 7 numbers of public property and about 1975 people have been affected by the Cyclonic storm that hit the region recently and the number of affected houses and population is expected to increase as the assessment is still in process.
Further, the Deputy Commissioner also highlighted the outstanding liabilities of the district with regard to relief funds of previous year and appealed for sanction of the relief funds at the earliest so as to assist the affected people of the area.
Additional Chief Engineer, MeECL, Tura informed that the electricity poles and wires were badly damaged in almost all the districts of Garo Hills and that restoration work is in progress and added that the main 33 KV lines are restored, 11 KV lines partially restored and few LT lines which were badly damage will need some time to restore.
He added that the power lnies across the Phulbari region sustained major damages and would take time for major rrestoration works to be completed.
From the PWD side, Additional Chief Engineer, PWD (Roads) Gromyko K Marak informed that though there were a few uprooted and fallen trees on the road, yet, all had been cleared and no major damage has been reported so far.
As per the report of the District Medical and Health Officer, Tura Dr. M R Sangma only three persons from Dadenggre area have received minor injuries and no casualties so far from other districts, he added.
Meanwhile, other departments including PHE, Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary is still assessing on the field, however so far, there is no report of damage or loss of livestock in the region.