E-Paper
Kejriwal to visit flood-hit Punjab tomorrow
Punjab is battling its worst floods in decades, with the deluge claiming 30 lives and impacting more than 3.5 lakh people in 23 districts.
AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal will visit flood-affected Punjab on Thursday to take stock of the situation, the party said.
Kejriwal will visit the flood-affected areas along with Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann. He will take stock of the relief work being carried out in the state and interact with the affected people, it said.
Punjab is under the grip of massive floods caused by the swollen Sutlej, Beas and Ravi rivers and seasonal rivulets due to heavy rain in their catchment areas in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Punjab is battling its worst floods in decades, with the deluge claiming 30 lives and impacting more than 3.5 lakh people. According to a state government bulletin, while initially 12 districts were under the impact of floods, all 23 districts have now been declared affected.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal had announced that the party’s Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj was reaching Punjab with relief material. “Every day, AAP leaders, MLAs, MPs, and common citizens from Delhi will carry trucks of relief supplies to Punjab and serve the affected people. Many RWAs and traders are also extending their support at their own level in this tragedy. People from across the country are coming forward to help Punjab. Today, the entire nation stands with Punjab,” he said.
Kejriwal on Tuesday said party MLAs and MPs were donating one month’s salary to the Punjab Chief Minister’s Relief Fund to provide aid to the flood-affected state.
Meanwhile, AAP Rajya Sabha member from Punjab Raghav Chadha has announced to give ₹3.25 crore from his Local Area Development (LAD) Scheme fund for relief work in the flood-affected state, said a statement on Wednesday.
He sanctioned an amount of ₹2.75 crore for repair of embankments along the Ravi river in Gurdaspur, one of the worst flood-affected districts, and ₹50 lakh for relief and rehabilitation work in Amritsar.
“These funds are not mine, they belong to Punjab and Punjabis. Every rupee will go towards service and rebuilding Punjab,” Chadha asserted while expressing his condolences to the families of 30 persons who died due to the flood-related incidents.
