Extreme devastation caused by flooding in Assam is heartbreaking: Rahul Gandhi

Silchar (Assam), July 8 (IANS) Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi who was in Assam on Monday to take stock of the flood situation, said that the extreme devastation caused by flooding in the state was heartbreaking.

The LoP met a delegation of Assam Congress led by state President Bhupen Kumar Borah. The delegation apprised him of the flood situation in the state.

Gandhi in a post on X handle said, “The extreme devastation caused by flooding in Assam is heartbreaking - with innocent children like 8-year-old Avinash being taken away from us. My heartfelt condolences to all the bereaved families across the state.”

Quoting the Assam Congress leaders, he said that over 60 people died in the current Assam floods while over 53,000 people were displaced and 24 lakh people were affected.

“These numbers reflect the gross and grave mismanagement by BJP's double-engine government which came to power with the promise of a flood-free Assam,” Gandhi said.

He said: “Assam needs a comprehensive and compassionate vision - proper relief, rehabilitation, and compensation in the short term, and a pan-Northeast water management authority to do everything necessary to control floods in the long term.”

“I stand with the people of Assam, I am their soldier in Parliament, and I urge the Central govt to extend all possible help and support to the State expeditiously.”

Later, Gandhi visited Manipur's Jiribam district, where fresh violence occurred after the killing of 59-year-old Soibam Saratkumar Singh, a farmer, on June 6, and met the inmates of the relief camps.

Congress sources said that the LoP interacted with the inmates in the relief camps where people took shelter after the Jiribam violence broke out.

An indefinite curfew was promulgated and a huge contingent of the central paramilitary forces and state commando battalions were deployed to deal with the ethnic violence in Jiribam district, a mixed populated area adjoining southern Assam.