As floods in Assam sweep away thousands of hectares of land rendering lakhs of people homeless, active human trafficking rackets, inundated jails and power cuts lasting for weeks are worsening the situation. Thousands of inundated villages in 29 districts of Assam are disconnected to the towns due to breakage of roads and bridges. As many as 427 relief camps lack sufficient drinking water and food, and diseases like fever and diarrhoea are being reported.
As on Wednesday, 28 people have died in floods in the state. Out these, ten died within a span of 24 hours (from Tuesday to Wednesday). Over one-and-a-half lakh people are lodged in 427 relief camps.
Due to the floods, a jail in Assam which has 409 inmates had to be shifted to a women's college in the state. The inmates were shifted to the Dhubri Girls College on Tuesday night after flood water inundated the jail.
Raunak Ali Hazarika, Deputy Inspector General, Western Range, Assam said, “The water was entering the cells and so, we had to shift the inmates to a makeshift jail in Dhubri Girls College. They will be kept there till the floods recede.”
The inmates, out of which eight are women, are confined to classrooms on the first floor of the college. Police patrolling has been increased in the college to make sure no one escapes from the makeshift cells. The ongoing summer vacation has made it convenient to lodge the inmates in the college. However, the college's administrative office remains open.
Notably, Dhubri is one of the worst flood-hit districts of Assam. As on Wednesday, 2,51,288 people have been affected by floods in the Dhubri Revenue Circle alone, where the Dhubri district jail is located.