Punjab floods ‘Mann-made’, Chugh hits back at AAP govt

Chugh said instead of blaming the BJP for trivialising the sensitive issue, chief minister Bhagwant Mann must tell people of Punjab about “his government’s irresponsible and irresponsive behaviour” in handling the flood situation.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary Tarun Chugh on Saturday accused the AAP-led Punjab government of playing politics over the recent floods, while terming the disaster “Mann-made” due to the state’s own failures.

BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh was in Jalandhar on Saturday. (Gourav)

During his visit to Jalandhar, Chugh said instead of blaming the BJP for trivialising the sensitive issue, chief minister Bhagwant Mann must tell people of Punjab about “his government’s irresponsible and irresponsive behaviour” in handling the flood situation.

“The floods were AAP and ‘Mann-made’ as the government failed to tackle illegal mining in the rivers, leading to weakening of the main bundhs,” Chugh remarked, alleging that instead of acting proactively, Mann was blaming the India Meteorological Department over its weather predictions.

“Instead of making arrangements to deal with excessive monsoons, the state government was busy entertaining its Delhi leaders,” he said.

Chugh said during the visits of BJP’s Union ministers in flood-hit areas, people complained about illegal mining in the river bed of Ravi in Pathankot and Sutlej in Ludhiana. An FIR was registered on the complaint of Sasrali village people against illegal mining on May 18, but no action was taken.

Demanding a white paper on illegal mining, Chugh said the government cannot run away by holding special assembly sessions on floods as people of Punjab wanted serious answers to their questions.

Chugh also accused the state government for poorly presenting its case before Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit in flood-affected areas on September 9, when a special package of ₹1,600 crore was announced.

“While Punjab’s chief secretary presented a damage estimate of ₹13,289 crore, cabinet minister Hardeep Singh Mundian quoted a drastically higher figure of ₹20,000 crore,” he pointed out.

Responding to the allegations, AAP’s state spokesperson Neel Garg said the state government held the special assembly session to expose the lies of BJP and its leaders.

“The BJP leaders are spreading lies among the people, holding the AAP government responsible for the natural disaster. The BJP-led central government has treated Punjab unfairly by handing out peanuts in the form of ₹1600 crore as compensation for the massive floods,” he said.