The opposition SAD on Thursday accused the Punjab government of ignoring flood protection work and failing to check illegal mining in the state that is ravaged by floods.
SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, who was here to take stock of the situation, said, "The Congress government is directly responsible for the misery wrought on Punjabis due to devastating floods because it did not conduct required flood protection work and failed to check illegal mining which eroded river embankments."
The Ferozepur MP alleged that the Congress government ignored flood protection work and did not get the same done three months ago as required.
"Even then money was not released to deputy commissioners to complete flood protection work," he alleged.
Badal further accused the state government of having failed in checking illegal mining, "patronized" by Congress leaders.
"This has also been a major contributor to the unprecedented flooding experienced in this belt," he added.
He said the Congress government had also failed to take notice of appeals by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) to utilise Bhakra dam waters for irrigation purposes.
The Bhakra dam was filled adequately in May itself and the authorities had requested partner states to avail of additional water for irrigation purposes.
"But the government did not avail this opportunity and instead left farmers at canal ends facing acute water shortage," he claimed.
Badal said the Congress government did not even react appropriately to the warning given by BBMB on August 13 that it would be constrained to release water from the Bhakra dam on August 17.
As many as 17 villages of Punjab's border district Ferozepur were flooded after Pakistan opened gates of headworks on the Sutlej river. Several villages of Ferozepur are already inundated because of the recent rains and breaches in embankments of the river.
According to a Punjab Agriculture department official, floods in the state have already damaged about 4,000 hectares of crops, with the maximum damage witnessed in Rupnagar on the downstream of the Sutlej river.
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