Due to floods in Assam, houses have submerged and boats are the only solace for affected people.
22 districts of Assam are flooded and nearly 18 lakh people have been displaced. Nearly 2,30,000 people are living in over 500 relief camps across the state. Does this mean the crores of spent on relief measures have had no impact? Some seem to believe so but the government strongly denies that charge.
With houses submerged and boats often become the only solace for 18 lakh people who have been affected. They sleep, cook and eat on the boats.
And that is why, many say, money spent on mitigation measures may have gone waste.
Latif Dewan, a resident of Balimukh village, says, "Whatever the government has spent has not yielded results. Crores have been spent but to no avail."
Experts say the administration has missed the bus on measures that could have helped improve the situation. Dams in upper Assam could have greatly helped deal with excess water during the flood season but now dam building may not feasible due to huge displacement fears in Arunachal Pradesh.
Former Vice- Chairman of the Brahmaputra Board SN Phukan told NDTV, "Dams are surely going to contribute to storage of flood waters thereby contributing to less discharge downstream. Therefore there will be less flooding."
General Secretary, Jamaat E Ulema Hind (Assam), Moulana Ataur Rahman Qasmi says, "There is a time for maintaining embankments. If the embankments had been repaired in time then perhaps the impact would have been less. Time bound work is necessary."
The government says this year the rains have been unprecedented. In the last three months Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have received 5957 mm rain fall. That's how much a huge state like Rajasthan gets in five years.
Nandita Hazarika, Joint Secretary of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority says, "Mitigation measures don't stop a flood. Mitigation measures only help reduce impact of flood. No one can stop a flood."
The government says the reduction in the number of deaths this year is proof mitigation measures have helped.