It’s been over a week since the embankments of the Barak river broke, and an enormously sinister amount of water rushed into Silchar and its surrounding areas. The severity of the flooding was largely due to the collapse of an important dam upstream.
It has been a week since the people of Silchar have had access to Electricity, Drinking water, Healthcare, and other basic amenities that we deem essential to everyday life in the developing world. To make matters even grimmer than they already appear, people have been denied the opportunity to carry out the last rites of the departed because all parts of the city are underwater.
One would think that after an entire week, the water levels must decline, and things must be looking up, but that’s not the case. Water levels remain the same or are surging even now, which has sprung the delinquent part of society into action.
If a catastrophe of this scale were occurring in any other part of the country, it would be all over the TV all the time, but because a small town in southern Assam is suffering this devastation, which doesn’t anyway contribute to advertiser revenue, and TRP, it has been relegated to suffer in silence.
Getting constant national coverage would force the authorities to do more than just the bare minimum and get the necessary help to the people of Silchar. Tell anyone and everyone you can about this travesty so that national channels are forced to cover this issue, and the people of Silchar get the help they desperately need.
(The article is solely the opinion of the author. The views expressed here are solely personal and not in any way connected to any organisation or any political party ).
Writer is a Software Engineer who is currently working in Guwahati.