FORTY-FOUR people died of Japanese encephalitis, a viral infection, at the Assam Medical College Hospital in Dibrugarh on July 28. The same day another 68 patients suffering from the viral disease were admitted to the hospital that receives patients from across the state. T R Borborah, principal of the medical college, confirmed the deaths. Health officials in Assam said the disease has
Guwahati: A wave of flood, triggered by incessant rains along the foothills of Arunachal Pradesh and eastern Assam districts, has killed two persons and inundated hundreds of hectares of crop land rendering over two lakh people homeless so far in Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts where rivers, on spate, have overtopped embankments in many places disrupting surface communication.
With legislators across parties expressing fears about the impact in Assam of mega dams on rivers in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam Assembly Speaker Tanka Bahadur Rai has constituted a House Committee to carry out its own study of the problem.
Two weeks after a much-hyped embankment constructed with the application of a geo-fabric technology failed to prevent the Brahmaputra from flooding Lakhimpur district, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday ordered a high-level inquiry into alleged anomalies in the Rs 100-crore contract that was awarded to a Malaysian company.
The flood situation at Dhakuwakhana was still grim on the fourth day since overflowing waters of the Brahmaputra entered this subdivision of Lakhimpur district through the unrepaired gaps of the embankment at Matmara.
The Brahmaputra is still flowing 67 cm above the danger mark of 93.03 metres in Matmora area of Lakhimpur district, even as the Mora Pagladiya river breached its right embankment at three places and its left embankment at one place in the Gobradal area of Nalbari district last night.
The Assam Government has sent out a red alert across the flood-prone districts, following a breach of embankment on the swelling Brahmaputra river in Upper Assam on Wednesday.
State Revenue Minister Bhumidhar Barman said at least 80 villages have been engulfed by gushing waters, rendering over one lakh people homeless in the Lakhimpur district.
A red alert was sounded in Lakhimpur district as the 100-metre stretch of the state-of-the art Matmora embankment, which was constructed using the geo-fabric technology at a cost of Rs 140 crore, was washed away by the gushing water of the Brahmaputra yesterday, reports PTI.
