Questions unregulated flow of water into Punjab rivers
Accompanied by state leaders, visits flood hit areas till late midnight
Warring hopes PM will provide adequate flood relief package
Punjab Newsline, Kartarpur-
Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and AICC in-charge of Punjab Bhupesh Bhagel continued his visit to the flood-hit areas on the third day today and met the flood affected people.
Accompanied by senior Punjab Congress leaders including PCC president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, the CLP leader Partap Singh Bajwa, former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Gujreet Singh Aujla and others, Bhagel was on the ground in the flood-hit areas till late midnight.
Meanwhile, responding to the proposed visit of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to flood-hit areas in Punjab on Tuesday, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring hoped that he will provide an adequate and comprehensive relief package for the rehabilitation of the flood affected people.
Interacting with people and reporters at the Kartarpur Corridor here today, Bhagel noted that people of the state had suffered due to the political confrontation between the BJP ruled centre and the AAP ruled Punjab. Just because they had their own issues to sort and settle, they made Punjab suffer, he remarked, while referring to complete lack of coordination between the state and the central governments.
He said, floods are a natural calamity, which have affected everyone and still the two governments did not sit together to provide any relief to the people of Punjab. He said the ruling party leaders’ visits to the flood-hit areas were just cosmetic, as they had nothing to offer to the victims.
The former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister noted that there has not been any meeting held between the central and state government officials on such a great tragedy that has affected lakhs of people and damaged crops in an area spread over more than 4 lakh acres with standing crops. This only reveals and reflects the lack of sensitivity towards the people’s plight amongst both the governments, he observed.
Responding to a query, the senior Congress leader also questioned the reported unregulated flow of extra water into Punjab rivers when they were already full to the capacity, thus causing huge devastation after breaking the embankments.
Bhagel, who is currently visiting the flood affected areas in Punjab, met the flood victims in the districts of Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Ferozepur and Fazilka. He will be submitting his report to the party leader Rahul Gandhi, who was first among all the national leaders from all the political parties, to voice his concern over the devastating floods in Punjab.
Replying to a question on the proposed visit of the Prime Minister to Punjab, PCC president Warring said, while everyone would welcome his visit to the state at this hour, at the same time we hope Punjab is adequately compensated.
He hoped that the Prime Minister would rise above politics and be generous towards the people of Punjab. He recalled that during the UPA regime, when Dr Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister and when it was an Akali-BJP government in the state and that time also there were floods in Punjab, he (Dr Singh) provided liberal aid to the tune of Rs 1200 crores to the state without any delay or politics.