Month: August 2021

The Bias Against the Indian Farmer Is a Deep and Troubling One

That a bureaucrat told police to ‘break the heads’ of farmers who were protesting in Karnal indicates that those in the system have bought into the narrative that farmers are the problem.

The protesting farmers’ worst fears are slowly starting to materialise. One of their many concerns has to do with the inordinate amount of power the bureaucracy will have over them if the three Central farm laws are implemented.

The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Fair Services Bill, 2020 or, as the farmers refer to it, ‘the ‘contract farming law’, gives a shocking amount of legal impunity to private players who enter into agreements with farmers. In case of a disagreement between a farmer and a corporation, for example, a farmer will not be allowed to appeal to the judicial system but only to bureaucrats of the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) rank or at most, collector rank!

Ravi Azad, a 30-year old youth leader with the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Haryana, points out wryly, “The attack on peacefully protesting farmers at the Bastara toll plaza in Karnal on August 28 has shown us very clearly what we can expect from SDMs.” He is, of course, referring to the chilling video of SDM Ayush Sinha that has gone viral in which he is seen instructing the police to quite literally ‘break the heads’ of the protesting farmers.

Screengrabs and photographs shared on Twitter showing police lathicharge on farmers at Karnal and its aftermath. Photos: Twitter

Says Azad, “If it comes to a showdown between a farmer and a corporation that has the blessings of this government, how many SDMs will actually deliver justice to the farmer? Most have sold their conscience and will do the bidding of the government in power. If an SDM who instructed the police to inflict bodily harm on peaceful protestors is still walking around freely, where is the rule of law?”

Not only were dozens of farmers badly injured in the lathi charge at the Bastara toll plaza, Sushil Kajal, a farmer in his 50s from Rampur Jata village who had been a part of the protests since they began, succumbed to his injuries. He is survived by his wife and two sons, one of whom is still in school.

In an interview with journalist Mandeep Punia, Jagdeep Aulakh of the Bharatiya Kisan Union says that another farmer, Gurjaint Singh, was beaten repeatedly on the head, but his turban protected him. But when Gurjaint lost his footing and fell, the policeman who was beating him started hitting him mercilessly on the side of his face, breaking his nose and damaging his eyes. Gurjaint now has impaired vision as a result.

Vasu Kukreja, a 27-year old Tis Hazari court lawyer who supports the cause of the protesting farmers and is currently fighting 1,500 cases on their behalf, says, “The police are supposed to follow a Code of Conduct if protestors become a threat. [Here, the protestors were peaceful and not a threat.] The police are first required to issue a verbal warning. If that doesn’t work, they are expected to use water cannons. If that, too, doesn’t work, they are within their rights to use teargas and then, once they have exhausted all other options, they can use their lathis, but only below the waist. As a final resort, of course, they can detain people. But the fact that an IAS officer specifically instructed policemen to hit peaceful protestors on their heads shows we have entered a dangerously lawless time!”

According to Jagdeep Aulakh, the police lathi-charged the protestors not once, but four times.

Not surprised

Agricultural economist Devinder Sharma, who has been focusing attention on the plight of India’s farmers for over two decades now, is surprised neither at the barbarity of the police’s actions nor at the bureaucrat’s orders that brought them about. He says:

“You should see how many people on my Twitter feed are condoning the actions of the police and saying the farmers are gundas and that they deserve this! The reason they believe this is that an entire narrative has been built over the years (and much more actively over the last several months) that farmers are the problem, but they are not. They are in crisis, and have been for many decades now. The three farm laws were the last straw for them and have forced them to take to the streets in protest.”

Sharma holds pro-corporate, neoliberal economists responsible for the mess that Indian agriculture is in today. “Farmers are victims of an economic design that is deliberately impoverishing them. Supranational bodies like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund encourage countries like India to make agriculture unsustainable, and force farmers off their farm lands so as to turn them into cheap labour in the cities. But the migrant crisis following the lockdown of 2020 showed us just how disastrous that kind of thinking is, and how inhospitable cities are to those who make up the vast majority of the country.”

Sharma wants to know why, at a time when many countries around the world are seriously starting to doubt the wisdom of heavy corporate involvement in agriculture, the Indian government is hell-bent on implementing three clearly pro-corporate farm laws. (The answer, of course, is obvious to anyone who understands the close, symbiotic relationship between this particular government and its favourite corporate houses.)

The bias against farmers, Sharma says, is deep and has been reinforced over the decades by journalists and media houses who simply parrot what ‘pro-reform’ economists saying. It is no surprise, therefore, that so many civil servants have bought into this bias as well.

Sharma, who addresses audiences consisting of both police and civil servants, often tells them, “Before you order a lathi charge against farmers, please understand their circumstances! Please understand they have been given a raw deal systemically and treated unfairly for decades now. You don’t see corporate houses protesting at Jantar Mantar, do you?”

Women farmers and supporters during the Kisan Sansad against the farm laws at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, July 26, 2021. Photo: PTI

Ravi Azad, the Bharatiya Kisan Union youth leader mentioned earlier sums up the situation and spells out the perils facing Indian society as a whole:

“The British adopted a divide-and-rule policy when they ruled over us. Successive Indian governments have done the same. They have divided us on the basis of caste and religion. Now they are dividing the urban from the rural. You can call us names and look away when our heads are cracked open, but please remember, when the corporations monopolise and cartelise agriculture and food prices skyrocket, we the farmers will still somehow be able to grow our own little bit of food and survive. What will you city dwellers do?”

Rohit Kumar is an educator with a background in positive psychology and psychometrics. He works with high school students on emotional intelligence and adolescent issues to help make schools bullying-free zones. He can be reached at letsempathize@gmail.com.

Why Kerala’s Response to COVID-19 Has Positive Lessons for India

Victory against COVID-19 lies in keeping fatalities to the minimum.

This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.

“What is happening in Kerala?” is a question I often get nowadays. There are also wide-ranging foredrawn conclusions which mostly are not backed by science but biases.

Vulnerable state

Success brings its own set of problems, especially when it is comes earlier than other states. In December 2020, India’s seroprevalence was twice that of Kerala (21% versus 10.7%). This low prevalence was mostly attributed to the successful state implementation of strong containment and mitigation measures compared to other parts of the country. By July 2021, as the national seroprevalence was 67.6%, Kerala still had nearly 56% of its population yet to be infected. Effectively, the state was fertile ground for a new round of circulation. Despite the fear of potential fatalities at staggeringly high levels of vulnerability, Kerala has shown remarkably lower case fatality. This is mostly due to early diagnosis, timely referral (although it is self-referral due to better awareness), and adequate treatment facilities.

Variant/s at play

Just when a relatively greater proportion of the population was susceptible, the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, known for its higher infectivity and rapid transmission, spread in Kerala. There might be more than just one variant, but the July and August sequencing results can tell us if more variants were at play. Specifically, it is important to assess whether there is any change in the host receptor affinity, which makes infection more probable, derived from some specific mutations in the genes.

Genetic mutations are needed to enhance evolutionary adaptation, species recognition, host receptor affinity, and pathogenicity. Since there is no greater number of deaths, are the circulating variants in Kerala helpful to understand the genomic characteristics, thus leading to better adaptations or changes in receptor affinity?

Varied strategy

Whether clearly stated in policy statements or not, Kerala aimed to prevent a greater number of infections in the past. Compared to the failing “Zero Covid Strategy” of Australia and New Zealand, some criticism draws a parallel by inferring that the state followed the “Near Zero Covid” strategy. The counterargument is that the state could not have willingly let the population get infected for two reasons. First, the state had benefited from educated people, better awareness, community participation, and wisdom from the success in controlling other epidemics (more recently Nipah virus) and knew how to wage a successful battle against this infectious disease. Second, the high number of deaths and the suffering due to lack of hospital beds and oxygen was not seen in Kerala due to sustained success in containment strategy and relatively high vaccination coverage. While these are two extremes of opinions on strategy, the truth is that Kerala went in for a controlled or titrated burn and had the continuous presence of infections until the arrival of the Delta variant. Just because the strategy is different, the state cannot be blamed for it, not when cases are surging. Despite the positive attributes, there is some weakness as well. Increased mobility of the people internationally and to the other states could be an added factor. Decreased testing only during some period of time artificially alters the positive numbers. Also, there has bee criticism of the state for relaxing controls on crowds during the festive season.

Victory, what is it against COVID-19?

Victory against COVID-19 lies in keeping fatalities to the minimum. Not everything is known about how the virus and hosts (humans) behave in different regions of the world. Kerala has vaccinated 71% of its target population with one dose and 26% with two doses as of August 27, 2021. The UK and Israel are comparable countries with high vaccination coverage of over 60% (for both doses) and yet are witnessing an increasing growth rate in cases (Figure-2). But higher cases do not simply mean that it is a failed strategy. Comparatively, countries like Spain with two-dose coverage of more than 70% do not have the same burden as the UK, US, or Israel. Several factors, including the adaptation of the virus, waning of antibodies, and better surveillance, result in differential case burdens.

What happens next in Kerala and the rest of the country depends on each area’s seroprevalence and vaccination coverage. In areas with lower seroprevalence and poor vaccination coverage, there will be a higher number of cases and deaths. Therefore, Kerala’s model offers a lesson to continue early case detection efforts and better management while expanding vaccination coverage. The waves created by the Delta variant have affected countries with higher vaccination coverage but lower hospitalisation rates and lower mortality. Kerala shows that this is mostly a rule in the days ahead, not an exception. In summary, Kerala is not a failed model. As a matter of fact, it is a failure if you do not learn lessons from this model.

Giridhara R. Babu is a Professor of Epidemiology at the Indian Institute of Public Health, PHFI, Bengaluru.

As Schools Across the Country Prepare to Reopen on September 1, Many State Governments Issue SOPs

While certain COVID-safety measures, such as mask wearing and social distancing, are common to the guidelines in all states, certain variations in the SOPs exist from state to state.

New Delhi: Following Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya’s declaration on August 25 that all school teachers should be vaccinated on a priority basis before teacher’s day (September 5), schools across the country are set to reopen with the appropriate COVID-19 protocols in place.

September 1 is the date set by most states to allow students to return to classrooms and there are several common points to note across the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) put out by most states. These include social distancing measures, mandatory masking and sanitising, staggered timings and so on.

However, there are minor differences in the exact COVID-safety measures schools in each state will have to take.

In Delhi, schools will be reopening for students from grades 9-12 as will colleges and coaching centres. The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on Monday which laid out the various safety protocols which would need to be ensured by the institutions, the Indian Express reported.

As such, students will be met at school entrances with a thermal scanner and hand sanitiser as well as school personnel ensuring that their masks are being worn properly. Parents have been urged to keep their children at home if they are showing any COVID-19 symptoms and children showing symptoms while at school will be taken to a quarantine room. 

To ensure social distancing, classrooms will only be filled to 50% capacity, alternate seating will be ensured and class timings will be staggered with different students attending morning and evening sessions. There will also be a mandated gap of one hour between the two sessions. Moreover, even lunch timings will be staggered.

School buses and other vehicles will need to be sanitised regularly and the vaccination of bus drivers, as well as any other personnel on board, will have to be ensured.

However, students will require the written permission of their parents or guardians to attend school and those who are not comfortable with physically attending classes will be allowed to carry on in the online mode.

Other states are also reopening in a phased manner and only classes 9-12, for now, will be allowed to attend classes in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Puducherry, LiveMint reported.

Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin, after a meeting with top government officials in the state, announced that schools and polytechnics will reopen as planned on September 1 but, given the COVID-19 situation in the neighbouring Kerala, students travelling from there would need to be vaccinated and carry RT-PCR tests. Hostels for students and staff will be permitted to function with the requisite COVID-19 protocols in place, as reported by the Hindu.

The Tamil Nadu government also announced that school (from classes 9-12) and college students will be allowed to travel to their respective institutions on transport corporations for free without a bus pass.

Rajasthan will also maintain the 50% capacity rule inside classrooms and restrictions will be imposed on assembly prayers, sports activities and the provision of distributing mid-day meals. Additionally, all teachers and non-teaching staff (including bus and minicab drivers) will be required to have received at least one dose of the vaccine, the Hindu reported.

Puducherry will also only permit classrooms to be occupied at 50% capacity while instituting separate morning and evening sessions, similar to Delhi.

Madhya Pradesh will be opening schools for grades 6-12, with the state’s education minister Inder Singh Parmar declaring that the decision for other grades would be taken later.

In Telangana, students from all grades (from kindergarteners to Master’s students) will be permitted to attend, yet the 50% capacity rule will still be in force.

Assam, which had earlier planned to reopen schools on September 1 along with several other states, made the decision on Monday to hold off on the decision citing certain health concerns. A senior education department official told the Times of India that, with 500 daily cases in the state, the COVID-19 situation does not look encouraging and the government is “in no mood to take risks with the health of school students.”

India’s Economy Likely Rebounded in April-June amid Pandemic Risks

A Reuters survey of 41 economists projected gross domestic product grew 20% in the June quarter from a year earlier, versus a record contraction of 24.4% in the same quarter a year earlier.

New Delhi: India‘s economy likely rebounded in the April-June quarter from a deep slump last year helped by improved manufacturing and in spite of a devastating second wave of COVID-19 cases.

Asia’s third-largest economy suffered one of the biggest hits among major economies, contracting 7.3% in 2020/21, after a nationwide lockdown early last year. But the economy has not been as badly affected from the second wave in April-May this year due to less stringent lockdowns by state governments.

However, many analysts say the risk of spiking infections from the Delta variant and the slow pace of vaccinations in some states could hit India‘s growth momentum, with the economy unlikely to reach its pre-pandemic level of about $2.9 trillion before the middle of next fiscal year beginning April.

A Reuters survey of 41 economists projected gross domestic product grew 20% in the June quarter from a year earlier, versus a record contraction of 24.4% in the same quarter a year earlier.

If the median poll forecast is realised, it would be the fastest growth since the mid-1990s when official quarterly data was available, and up sharply from 1.6% in the previous quarter.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has kept its monetary policy loose, has forecast annual growth of 9.5% in the current fiscal year, although it has warned about the possibility of a third wave of the pandemic.

Also read: Modi’s Asset Monetisation Bonanza Must Avoid the Ownership Concentration Trap

Many sectors like retail, auto sales, farm output, construction and exports have picked up since June, supporting the government’s claim of a fast recovery, but some sectors such as transport, tourism and consumer spending remain weak.

“Nearly one million of about 4 million trucks plying long-distance cargo are still off the road, hit by a closure of many businesses and a recent surge in virus cases in the state of Kerala and neighbouring Tamil Nadu,” said Anjani Mandal, CEO of Bengaluru-based Fortigo Logistics.

A spike in cases of the more transmissible Delta variant has caused supply chain disruptions for many manufacturers, which could weigh on factory output and add to gloom for an already fragile recovery, he said.

Unlike advanced economies, which announced massive stimulus to support consumers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi opted for raising spending on infrastructure, privatisation of state companies and tax reforms said to bolster mid-term growth prospects, while providing free foodgrains to the poor.

“The government’s measures, if successful, could put the economy on a high growth path of 7.5-8% in coming years,” said N.R. Bhanumurthy, vice-chancellor, Bengaluru Ambedkar School of Economics University, while forewarning of short-term risks this year.

(Reuters)

‘Insult to Martyrs’: Politicians, Historians Denounce Jallianwala Bagh Revamp

Instead of a sombre memorial for those who lost their lives in the gruesome violence, they argue that the government has turned the memorial into a flashy site that does not take history seriously.

New Delhi: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the renovated Jallianwala Bagh complex on Saturday and pictures of the revamp were shared on social media, several people have criticised the government for turning the memorial into an “insult”.

Instead of a sombre memorial for those who lost their lives in the gruesome violence, they argue that the government has turned the memorial into a flashy site that does not take history seriously.

On April 13, 1919, British forces led by Reginald Dyer opened fire on peaceful protesters at Jallianwala Bagh, killing nearly 1,000 people. The site in Amritsar serves as a memorial for those who lost their lives. Now, after revamping parts of that memorial site, the government has drawn the ire of historians, politicians and others.

“This is corporatisation of monuments, where they end up as modern structures, losing the heritage value. Look after them without meddling with the flavours of the period these memorials represent,” tweeted historian S. Irfan Habib.

Former Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Chaman Lal called it a “distortion of history”. “People visiting Jallianwala Bagh should go with a sense of pain and anguish. They have now tried to make it a space for enjoying, with a beautiful garden. It was not a beautiful garden,” Lal told The Hindu.

Kim A. Wagner, professor of history in London and author of Amritsar 1919 – An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre, tweeted that the renovation “means that the last traces of the event have effectively been erased”.

Opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sitaram Yechury to criticised the move, calling it an “insult to martyrs”. “Only those who stayed away from the epic freedom struggle can scandalise thus,” Yechury said.

“I am the son of a martyr – I will not tolerate the insult of martyrs at any cost,” Gandhi said.

Several social media users from different walks of life too expressed their disappointment with the government’s decision.

Sachin Waze Gets Court Nod for Private Hospital Treatment

The court granted permission after the dismissed Mumbai police officer told the court saying he did not wish to “die in custody like (tribal rights activist and Jesuit priest) Stan Swamy”.

Mumbai: A special court on Monday refused the National Investigation Agency (NIA)’s application to take custody of dismissed Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze for questioning in the Antilia bomb scare case and allowed him to get admitted at a private hospital for treatment of his heart ailment after he said he doesn’t want to become “another Stan Swamy”.

Special judge Prashant R. Sitre permitted Waze (49), who is currently in jail under judicial custody, to get admitted to a private hospital in Thane for treatment for his heart ailment.

The cost of such treatment is to be borne by Waze and his family, the court said.

Waze, through his lawyer, senior advocate Sudeep Pasbola, had earlier told the court that three of his arteries had “90% blockage” and that doctors had advised immediate surgery for the same.

He urged the court to permit him to seek private medical treatment, saying he did not wish to “die in custody like (tribal rights activist and Jesuit priest) Stan Swamy”. Swamy (84), an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, had died on July 5 in a private hospital in suburban Bandra, while awaiting medical bail.

Last week, the NIA had filed an application before the special court seeking the custody of Waze for two days, and of his co-accused and former police officer Sunil Mane for five days in the Antilia bomb scare case.

Waze and Mane, along with eight other accused in the case, are currently in judicial custody.

The special court on Monday also refused to grant the NIA custody of Mane. Previously, the central agency had Waze in its custody for 28 days and Mane for 15 days.

On Monday, the NIA sought further custody, saying it required to question Waze and Mane to corroborate statements of witnesses.

Advocate Pasbola, however, objected to the same and said doctors at government-run JJ Hospital in the metropolis, where Waze had been taken from Navi Mumbai’s Taloja jail prison earlier this month, had advised him to undergo a bypass surgery without any delay.

Pasbola produced three medical reports to show Waze’s need for immediate medical aid. He said nothing was more important than a person’s life and that the NIA’s probe would be futile if Waze died awaiting medical treatment.

“Nothing is more important than the life of a person. The investigation will be futile if the person does not survive,” Pasbola said. “We don’t want him to become another Stan Swamy,” he said.

The judge then asked Waze, who had been produced before the court, if he wished to say anything.

Waze said in Marathi then that he did not want to become “another Stan Swamy.” The court, in its order, directed the Taloja prison authorities to take Waze to the private SS Hospital and Research Centre in Bhiwandi town of Thane district for treatment. It also directed the Taloja prison Superintendent to submit Waze’s medical report before the court every 15 days if the former police officer was admitted to the hospital.

An explosives-laden vehicle was found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s south Mumbai residence on February 25. Mansukh Hiran, a Thane-based businessman, had claimed to be the owner of the vehicle.

Hiran, who had said his vehicle had been stolen a week earlier, was found dead in a creek in Thane on March 5.

The NIA claimed Waze was involved in the planting of the explosives and Hiran’s murder and arrested him on March 13. He was later dismissed from police service.

Watch | Haalat Kya Hain: Lathi Charges in UP and The Failure of Law and Order In MP

From Sadhvi Pragya Thakur to Yogi Adityanath, this week’s show discusses several interesting developments in the week.

This week had a lot of interesting developments in terms of news. Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, continuing the BJP’s tradition, claimed that the rising inflation is the Congress’s propaganda.

Teachers were beaten up by the police outside Yogi Adityanath’s residence. Another video of a Muslim man made to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ emerged. In this programme, we will tell you what the country’s real situation is.

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Canada’s Trudeau Resumes Campaigning After Irate Crowds Disrupt Rallies

In highly unusual scenes for Canada, demonstrators in the Ontario towns of Bolton on Friday and Cambridge on Sunday shouted death threats and screamed abuse at Trudeau, many referring to his push for COVID-19 vaccinations.

Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plunged back into campaigning on Monday after unusually vocal protesters disrupted his election rallies and forced him to cancel an event.

Trudeau, whose ruling Liberals are tied in polls with their Conservative rivals ahead of the September 20 vote, spoke to media in the Quebec town of Granby on Monday but did not refer to the weekend unrest.

In highly unusual scenes for Canada, demonstrators in the Ontario towns of Bolton on Friday and Cambridge on Sunday shouted death threats and screamed abuse at Trudeau, many referring to his push for COVID-19 vaccinations.

The crowd in Cambridge made his announcement on Sunday of climate change policies difficult to hear.

Trudeau‘s team took the rare decision to cancel a rally planned near Bolton on Friday, saying the protests could endanger public safety. A senior Trudeau aide said the Liberal leader did not plan to make changes to avoid similar confrontations.

“I know Canadians … if you threaten them with violence and try to scare them away from what’s right, we double down,” Trudeau, who has been in power since 2015, said on Sunday after the protest.

Trudeau, 49, is the son of former Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who in the early 1980s was extremely unpopular in western Canada.

“I’ve never seen this intensity of anger on the campaign trail or in Canada, not when I was a kid, even with my dad visiting out West, where we did see anger,” he said on Friday.

During the 1968 campaign, Trudeau‘s father stood his ground when Quebec separatists threw rocks and bottles at him. “It defined the man,” said University of Toronto history professor emeritus Robert Bothwell.

Justin Trudeau‘s push for inoculations has generated the same rancour among right-wing groups as in the United States. Some demonstrators demanded Trudeau be locked up, prompting a Liberal aide to tweet, “Team Trump is out in force,” referring to former US President Donald Trump.

The Conservatives denounced the images and behaviour although some people at the Bolton protest wore shirts identifying themselves as working for a Conservative legislator.

Conservative strategist Dan Robertson suggested the Liberals, who have a minority government, might be seeking to benefit from the protests by appearing to stand firm.

“It’s not terribly difficult to re-jig a tour to avoid demonstrators (and) confrontations — if you wanted to,” he tweeted.

Delhi Police Facing 21% Staff Shortage Across 15 Districts

The South district is facing the largest shortfall, with 974 vacancies.

New Delhi: The Delhi Police has a 21.03% staff shortage across the 15 districts where it functions, an audit conducted by the police headquarters has found. As opposed to the sanctioned staff strength of 42,847, 33,833 people are currently employed, the Indian Express reported.

After Rakesh Asthana took over as Delhi Police commissioner, he said he intended to implement a three-shift duty system and enforce separation of law and order. “A few days ago, Asthana reviewed a presentation by the PHQ that was prepared by Special CP (headquarters and general administration) Sivagami Sundari Nanda, in which she claimed that the total sanctioned strength of Delhi Police is 94,353, but they have 78,985 personnel — a shortage of 15,368,” a police officer told Indian Express.

The shortages exist from the levels of inspector to constable, the report found. “There are 1,455 sanctioned posts of inspectors, but only 1,427 are currently employed; 6,237 sub-inspectors against sanctioned strength of 8,096; 20,355 head constables against 23,717 sanctioned posts; sanctioned vacancy for constables is 50,969, and there are 41,488 at present,” the officer told the newspaper.

The South district is facing the largest shortfall, with 974 vacancies.

Asthana was informed that security units, including the one looking after the prime minister, are also facing a shortage — 25,620 personnel against sanctioned strength of 27,368, Indian Express reported.

Assam Flood: Two Dead, 3.63 Lakh People Affected

According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, one child each drowned in Barpeta and Morigaon districts.

Guwahati: The flood situation in Assam deteriorated on Monday with two persons losing their lives and over 3.63 lakh people suffering in the deluge across 17 districts, an official bulletin said.

According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), one child each drowned in the floodwaters at Chenga in Barpeta district and Mayong in Morigaon.

More than 3.63 lakh people were affected by the floods in Barpeta, Biswanath, Cachar, Chirang, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Jorhat, Kamrup, West Karbi Anglong, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Sonitpur, South Salmara and Tinsukia districts, it said.

Lakhimpur is the worst-hit district with more than 1.3 lakh people suffering, followed by Majuli with nearly 65,000 persons and Darrang with over 41,300 people being affected.

Till Sunday, over 2.58 lakh people were affected by the flood across 14 districts of the state.

At present, 950 villages are under water and 30,333.36 hectares of crop areas have been damaged across Assam, ASDMA said.

Authorities are running 44 relief camps and distribution centres in 10 districts, where 1,619 people, including 321 children, are taking shelter, it said.

Also read: With Assam’s Eri Silk and Trees, Indians Fight Climate Change and Trafficking

The bulletin stated that different relief agencies have evacuated 470 persons from various parts of the state.

The authorities have distributed 621.34 quintals of rice, dal and salt, 578.82 litres of mustard oil, 100 quintals of cattle feed and other flood relief items.

Massive erosions were witnessed in Barpeta, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Dibrugarh, Goalpara, Morigaon, Nalbari and South Salmara district, the bulletin said.

Roads and other infrastructure have been damaged by floodwaters in Barpeta, Darrang, Golaghat, Morigaon, Nagaon, Sivasagar, Lakhimpur, and Tinsukia, ASDMA said.

A total of 2.56 lakh domestic animals and poultry were affected in the deluge, it added.

According to a report issued by the Central Water Commission, the Brahmaputra is flowing in “above normal to severe flood situations” in Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Sonitpur, Goalpara, Kamrup and Dhubri districts.

“Also tributaries of Brahmaputra, namely Beki in Barpeta, Jia Bharali in Sonitpur, Dikhow in Sivasagar, Sankosh in Dhubri, Subansiri in Lakhimpur, Dhansiri in Golaghat, Gaurang in Kokrajhar and Puthimari in Kamrup districts are flowing in above normal to severe flood situations.

“Kushiyara river (Barak and others) in Karimganj are flowing in above normal flood situation,” it said.