The Centre has released Rs 207 crore for conducting relief and rehabilitation of people affected in the current floods in Assam, Jitendra Singh, union minister for development of Northeastern Region (DoNER) said on Tuesday. Singh said this sum was otherwise due for release in December, but the Centre had released it four months in advance in view of the devastation caused by the current waves of floods in the state. “The Centre is yet to receive any report from the state government on the current flood situation. More funds will be released once a detailed assessment was made after the floods receded,” he said at a press conference here after touring some of the flood-affected areas on Tuesday. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi had on Monday asked for Rs 500 crore as interim relief from the Centre. Meanwhile, the daily flood update issued by the state disaster management authority on Tuesday put the number of people affected in the floods at over 2. 59 lakh. While the Brahmaputra continued to flow over the danger level in Jorhat, Goalpara and Dhubri, several of its major tributaries had inundated more than 500 village and damaged over 21,000 hectares standing crops. Over 21,000 people have been lodged in 54 relief camps, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Goalpara, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Morigaon and Nagaon. Of these, Dhubri accounted for the highest number of 9,500 people in 27 relief camps, the report said. Meanwhile the army, NDRF and SDRF continued to remain deployed particularly in the worst-affected Dhubri district. “The NDRF has rescued over 600 families in Dhubri in the past one week,” a spokesman of the NDRF said.
