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Punjab cabinet meeting on floods called off as CM Bhagwant Mann still unwell
Meeting, scheduled at 4pm on Friday, to review flood situation, relief and rescue ops had to be called off as there’s been no improvement in health of Bhagwant Mann, who is suffering from viral fever.
The Punjab cabinet meeting scheduled for Friday evening was cancelled due to chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s illness.
The chief minister had convened the meeting at 4pm to discuss the flood situation and review relief and rescue operations in the state.
Sources said the meeting had to be called off as there was no improvement in his health condition.
Mann is suffering from viral fever and was unable to accompany Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal to flood-hit areas in Sultanpur Lodhi on Thursday.
However, there was no official word from the state government on the reason for cancelling the cabinet meeting.
Mann had been touring the flood-affected areas and meeting residents earlier this week before he was taken ill.
On Thursday, the Punjab government directed the deployment of gazetted officers in every marooned village to effectively monitor the rescue-and-relief operations.
The border state is facing one of its worst flood disasters in decades. The floods are a result of the swollen Sutlej, Beas and Ravi rivers, along with seasonal rivulets, following heavy rainfall in their catchment areas in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Besides, heavy rains in recent days in Punjab have aggravated the situation.
State revenue, rehabilitation and disaster management minister Hardeep Singh Mundian said a total of 1,902 villages in 23 districts have been affected due to the unprecedented floods, impacting a population of more than 3.84 lakh. A total of 43 lives have been lost to the floods across 14 districts.
Extensive damage to standing crops over 1.71 lakh hectares of farmland has been reported, with Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Kapurthala and Mansa among the worst-hit districts.
