Special classes for students in relief camps from Aug 16

The Assam government will make arrangements to hold special classes for students in relief camps in trouble-torn BTAD and Dhubri districts where schools are scheduled to reopen on August 16, Education and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said today.

"Special classes will be held for student inmates in the camps till the inmate families are rehabilitated to their homes," he told newsmen.

Educational institutions should open by August 16 as students had suffered immensely due to the violence and classes will be held in relief camps, which are mainly housed in schools and colleges of the affected districts, he said.

Relief camps are housed in 258 schools in BTAD, including 71 in Kokrajhar and 32 in Chirang, while there 11 in Bongaigaon and 144 in Dhubri which are outside it.

Sarma, who is also the state health minister, said so far 22 people have died in relief camps of the four affected districts and 12 of them was due to old age.

So far 1,42,000 people have been treated in the camps by 248 doctors, including eight from Delhi and 50 special ambulances have been put into service to take the seriously ill to hospitals.

The health department, he said, has identified 4415 pregnant women in the camps and it has been decided to attach a nurse or shift them to a hospital 48 hours before their expected delivery dates.

There are 14,000 children between the age of 0-2 years and they have been given the necessary immunisation and provided with a kit to ensure basic hygiene.

The government has fixed three hospitals - Bongaigaon Civil Hospital, Barpeta Medical College Hospital and Guwahati Medical College Hospital as referral centres, he added.