Punjab calls for disaster response force

As water continued to enter the affected villages till late evening today,Punjab asked its chief secretary to coordinate with his counterpart in Haryana to jointly work out a solution for reducing the flood waters.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal,who visited the flood-affected areas after an aerial survey of the flood situation in Patiala,said 800 jawans of the Bathinda-based National Disaster Response Force had been requisitioned for deployment in the flood affected areas. “They would be in the flood-prone areas by tomorrow and start relief operations.” He added that two government officers alongwith the Disaster Force would be deployed in each flood-affected village to help rescue the marooned people and provide all kinds of assistance and help to them,including provision of food,shelter,fodder and medicines.

Punjab has ordered a special girdawari of the affected areas,where hundreds of acres of agricultural land lie under flood waters and the standing paddy crop has been totally damaged.

Badal also charged Haryana with pushing its waters towards Punjab,as they had put up bandhs in the Hansi-Butana Canal causing a breach in the SYL Canal. Badal,alongwith Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon,also charged Haryana with pushing the waters of Mankanda and Tangri rivers towards Punjab by diverting the flow.

Badal charged the Centre with not heeding to Punjab’s demands for protection of bandhs along the Ghaggar for channelising water in the flood-prone area. A detailed flood protection project has been pending with the Central Water Commission for over two years now.

Badal said Punjab Chief Minister would now take up the issue with the prime minister to help clear the project for flood-control measures and for channelising the Ghaggar waters in the flood-prone Ghanaur and Kanaouri areas.

The Deputy CM said after according sanction of the 40-km stretch along the Ghaggar river,the Central Water Commission had stopped the work of flood-protection midway and the remaining 17.5 kms stretch from Makrod to Khurail was held up,while the 22.5 kms stretch from Khanouri to Makrod was completed at a cost of Rs 22 crore. Badal said that a high level Central team was visiting Punjab tomorrow and would also see the damage caused by the fury of Ghaggar and stoppage of water and Hansi Butana gates. Badal said the Punjab government would impress upon the Central team to provide relief to the state in view of widespread damage to the crops,houses and infrastructure,power transmission network,telecommunication network and roads in these floods.