Send central team to assess flood situation in state: Punjab CM urges Amit Shah

Chandigarh: Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to immediately include Punjab in the list of flood-hit states where a central team will be visiting to assess the situation.

The Centre has listed 11 states to be reviewed by Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) for flood-damage but Punjab has no mention in it, even though the state has witnessed large-scale flooding in many areas following unprecedented rains, an official communication said.

"Surprised on the exclusion of Punjab from the list of states to be visited by the IMCT to assess losses in flood-affected areas in different States. Request HM Amit Shah ji to direct the central team to visit Punjab to assess the huge losses," Singh tweeted.

The team was constituted by the Union Home Ministry in pursuance of a decision taken at a high-level committee meeting on August 19. The committee had decided to break away from the past practice of waiting for the affected state to submit a memorandum seeking a central assessment.

It has been mandated to visit the flood-affected Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura, Bihar, Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujrat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala, for making final recommendations to the central government for allocation of flood assistance to the flood-ravaged states.

"Captain Amarinder pointed out that he had already written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek a special flood relief package of Rs 1,000 crore to address the losses resulting from floods in Punjab. It is estimated, as per initial calculations, that the state has suffered damage worth Rs 1,700 crore due to the floods," the communication said.

It may be recalled that flooding in river Sutlej due to the discharge of water from Bhakra Dam had caused extensive damage to the standing crops and inundation of residential areas in the villages.