The six-member Inter Ministerial Central Team (IMCT)   on Friday has also continued their  visit to many flood affected areas of Sepahijala and Khowai districts to take stock of the damages and losses caused by the week-long floods and landslides in Tripura, which witnessed disastrous floods for the first time in over three decades.

Giving details, Revenue Secretary Brijesh Pandey  said that on the request of the state government, the Centre sent the six-member inter-ministerial team led by B.C. Joshi, Joint Secretary (Foreigners Division) in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) arrived in the state on Wednesday and they attended rounds of meeting with concerned administrative officials and on Thursday and Friday along state government officials visited many flood affected areas, relief camps, villages and also met also affected people.

The team comprises senior officials from the Departments of Agriculture, Expenditure (Ministry of Finance), and Ministries of Jal Shakti, Rural Development, and Road Transport and Highways.

The Inter Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) led by B. C. Joshi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, was out today for on-the-spot damage assessment in affected areas of Sepahijala and Khowai Districts. District Disaster Management Authorities led by respective DM and Collector and other officials from different departments are facilitating IMCT in on-the-spot assessment of damages.

Earlier, on Thursday considering the gravity of the situation, leading to loss of human lives and public and private properties, the state government declared the entire state as “Natural Calamity Affected Area”.

While giving latest updates on the flood situation in Tripura on Friday, the Revenue secretary Brijesh Pandey addressing a press conference at Civil Secretariat said that for the first time in two weeks, the water level of Gomati River at Sonamura has come down to below flood level.

He said that  the flood situation is being closely monitored at the highest level and the entire state has been declared as “Natural Calamity Affected Area”. Total 32 persons have lost their lives, two are injured and one person is reported to be missing. Out of these 32 deaths, 19 are due to landslides, 12 due to drowning and 1 due to collapse of house.

Pandey said  as on date, 329 relief camps are operational by District Administration, providing shelter to around 17,939 persons in the State. During the last 24 hours 34,967 persons have left relief camps to their homes. The District administration is providing necessary relief, including food, drinking water and medical help etc. To prevent spreading of any water borne diseases, regular cleaning of toilets, bleaching, disinfectant spraying and hygienic environment is being done.

Since last 24 hours two more AWCs which were water logged have been started with Take home Ration facility. Thus as of now, only 8 AWCs are closed due to water logging. As reported on Thursday, 9,278 AWCs are physically functional and the rest 936 AWCs are functioning with a ‘Take home ration’ facility.

Since Thursday , 19 more schools have been opened. Therefore, out of 4,734 Schools in the state, 4590 schools have been opened and the rest 144 schools are yet to be re-opened. The closed schools are in four districts including 14 in Dhalai, 30 in Sepahijala, 49 in  Gomati  and 51 schools in South Tripura district.

The academic activities have started in colleges after their re-opening on August 27. The attendance of students in most of the Colleges is normal. However, as the Semester Exams of 2nd and 4th Semesters are going on, students’ attendance would increase after the completion of the Semester Exams. The Tripura University has been requested to reschedule the ongoing Semester examinations of undergraduate courses. Accordingly, all the ongoing Semester examinations of 2024, which began on 13.08.2024, have been postponed on August 20 until 1st week of September, 2024.

Among others present in the press conference were Additional Secretary of Revenue Department Sumit Lodh and State Project Officer of Disaster Management Sarat Das.