Death toll rises to 3 in South-West GH floods

By From Our Correspondent Last updated Jul 21, 2019

A electrical transformer supplying power to Rajabala area of West Garo Hills is on the verge of being inundated posing a life threatening danger to people in the area who may use the flooded route to pass through. ST photo

TURA: The death toll from the floods in South West Garo Hills district has risen to three after a teenage boy drowned at Monabari village under Betasing block on Saturday. South West Garo Hills deputy commissioner Ram Kumar S informed that a fifteen year old boy who suffered from a condition of epilepsy lost his life after he apparently had an attack and lost consciousness when he fell into knee deep flood waters leading to his drowning.

Earlier, on Thursday last, two other flood victims, 71 year old Promila Das of Daspara and one year old Aruv Biswas of Fakirpara locality in Mahendraganj drowned in the flood waters. Floods ravaged South West Garo Hills district from Tuesday last inundating large tracts of land all the way from Monabari in Betasing block to Mahendraganj under Zikzak block.

After four days of flooding the waters of the Brahmaputra and Jinjiram have started receding since Saturday morning in almost all the places. Deputy Commissioner Kumar informed that all the relief camps are still running and inmates are being provided with food items and drinking water as part of gratuitous relief. As many as 42 relief camps were set up to house over 15,000 affected people in the district. An NDRF team from Guwahati and two SDRF teams from Tura continue to be stationed in the flood affected region.

Meanwhile, to prevent any outbreak of water borne diseases, medical teams continue to monitor the camps providing free health checkups for the affected people while bleaching powder is being used in areas where there could be possible contamination. Most of the cattle.

and other livestock in the affected region have been rounded up and placed in a temporary enclosure in the AR college premises in Mahendraganj with veterinary teams monitoring the health condition of the animals to check for disease. Some of the severely affected villages are Daspara, Hridaypur, Beparipara, Nandirchar, Paulpara, Nayapara, Tosildarpara, Ghegapara, Bagicha and Julapara-all falling under Zikzak C&RD block.