Students from Assam’s Sila Mari village cross stream on makeshift boat to reach school

Biswanath (Assam) [India], September 28 (ANI): Students of Assam’s Sila Mari village and its adjoining areas are forced to undertake a risky journey every day to school by crossing a stream that comes on their way in a makeshift boat.

Visuals from the spot have shown students loading their bicycles on a rowboat so that they can go to the other side of the stream.

The local villagers of the area have in the past urged the district authority to construct a bridge over the stream on several occasions but to no avail.

“We have been forced to cross the stream with a makeshift boat to reach our school. We are so scared to cross the stream, but we have no option,” a girl student of MRA High School of Niz Baghmari said.

Md. Juwar Ahmed, another student of the school said that there used to be a bamboo bridge across the stream but it got washed away in the floods.

“Earlier, there was a bamboo bridge, but it was washed away by flood waters. We need to pay Rs 10 per day to cross the stream. We request our Chief Minister to construct a concrete bridge here. All students are facing massive problems,” Md. Juwar Ahmed said.

Earlier this month, Assam Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Jogen Mohan said that over 12 lakh people have been affected by floods in the state this year.

The minister said that 12,95,642 people and 3335 villages of the state have been affected by the floods this year.

“The flood waters damaged 37 embankments, and 133 embankments are in danger of being breached,” the Assam Minister said.

He further said that a total of 1106 roads, 101 bridges, and 23,000 houses have also been damaged due to floods in the state this year so far.

“1663 animals died in floods in different parts of the state this year,” he added.