People wade through floodwaters in Lakhimpur. File picture

Guwahati/Dhubri, July 4: Floods claimed the first victim in Assam this year when a 60-year-old man drowned in upper Majuli today, after his boat was swept away on the Tuni river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra.

Borlowa Das of Dadhara village had taken his boat out to fetch food for his family around 11am when his boat was swept away near Gussibari village. His body was fished out later.

More than 25 villages, spreading over five panchayats on the island, have been submerged by floodwaters since Thursday evening. Sub-divisional administration officials said nearly 100 families have been evacuated since yesterday.

In lower Assam’s Bongaigaon district, two government officials were beaten up by a mob today over a breach in an embankment of the river Ai at Dumerguri under North Salmara sub-division. Several villages have been inundated by floodwaters.

Police said the two officials from North Salmara sub-division — extra assistant commissioner Aminul Islam and mandal of settlement officer Saiful Islam — had gone to assess the situation this morning.

“The aggrieved people of Dumerguri, Santoshpur, Behulapara and Lengtisinga villages assaulted the officials over delay in distribution of relief materials,” a police official said.

North Salmara sub-divisional officer (civil) Puru Gupta said the flood-affected people have been shifted to a relief camp at Lentisinga College and flood materials have been distributed.

Nearly 1.5 lakh people have been affected by flash floods while 300 villagers have been displaced because of erosion over the last five days in Bongaigaon district.

Officials of the revenue, relief and rehabilitation department monitoring the situation said Dhkuakhana in Lakhimpur district and Majuli in Jorhat district were the worst affected in the first bout of floods in Assam this year. While 127 villages were affected in Dhakukhana with a population of 1.8 lakh, 25 villages in Majuli were hit, they said.