10 people from Assam, including hydropower workers, missing after Nepal floods

Ten people from Assam, including two residents who had travelled to Nepal in search of work at a hydropower project, have been missing since devastating floods hit Nepal two days ago, the state government said on Friday.

According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), there has been no contact with the 10 people since Wednesday, when the floods struck the Bhote Koshi River and affected several areas, including a hydropower project where more than 400 workers were reportedly trapped.

They include two persons from Nalbari district, three each from Kamrup (Metropolitan) and Karbi Anglong districts, and one each from Golaghat and Hojai districts.

Among them are Rituparna Brahma and Mantri Basumatary, both from Langhin in Karbi Anglong district, who had travelled to Nepal two weeks ago in search of work at the hydropower project on the Trishuli River, which was among the affected sites.

Shatadal Nath from Doboka in Hojai district, who went to Nepal eight months ago to work at the same project on the Trishuli River, is also missing.

“My son called me on Tuesday. After that there has been no contact with him. I request the state government to locate my son and bring him back,” Nath’s mother said on Friday.

Retired professor of Gauhati University Dipali Sarkar and her husband, Manash Kumar Ghosh, both from Guwahati in Kamrup (Metropolitan) district, are among those missing. Sarkar, a former head of the physics department of the university, and her husband had booked a trip to Kailash Mansarovar through a travel agency based in Kolkata.

A professor from the pathology department of Nalbari Medical College and Hospital, Tirtha Chaliha, is also among those missing. Details of when she went to Nepal or for what reasons are not known yet.

The other missing persons are Arun Mahanta from Nalbari district, Pankaj Naug from Guwahati, Rahul Daimary from Golaghat and Soneshwar Narzary from Karbi Anglong.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday that the state government was making all possible efforts to ensure the safe return of all persons from the state who are stranded in Nepal due to the floods.