Declare the floods in western Maharashtra most severe disaster: Congress

According to the National Disaster Management manual, a disaster of such gravity is termed as an L-3 disaster and must be immediately announced so.

In a letter to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Congress has demanded the floods in Kolhapur and Sangli be declared as level-three (L-3) disaster – the most severe disaster which needs to be tackled by the Centre. Congress said this will allow the two districts to get proper help from the central government and provide relief to flood-affected people more effectively.

In a letter to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Congress has demanded the floods in Kolhapur and Sangli be declared as level-three (L-3) disaster – the most severe disaster which needs to be tackled by the Centre. (ANI Photo)

According to the National Disaster Management manual, a disaster of such gravity is termed as an L-3 disaster and must be immediately announced so. The levels of disasters vary from L-0 to L-3. Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant, said, “Looking at the loss caused to human life and public and private assets, it’s a national calamity and needs to be declared as L-3 disaster. The central government has not played any role in the relief measures even though lakhs of people have been affected by it.”

“The Centre, through an affidavit in the Supreme Court in response to the petition during Kerala floods last year, had said there is nothing called ‘national calamity’. So, it is high time the state recommend it [the Centre] to announce it as L-3 disaster.” Sawant said this will help the state in expediting rehabilitation of the flood-affected people. In response to a similar demand by few quarters earlier, Fadnavis had said the state was doing everything that needs to be done during a national calamity.

Meanwhile, the tug-of-war between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition parties continued on Sunday. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress cornered Fadnavis and BJP’s local MLA Suresh Halvankar for distributing food grain packets with their photos on it, to the flood-affected people.

On Saturday, the opposition questioned the state if printing of stickers had led to the delay in distribution of relief packets. In response, BJP released photos of relief packets distributed in Sangli donning photos of NCP state chief Jayant Patil. When Patil and his members claimed that the pictures released by BJP were ‘photoshopped’, the ruling party released more photos on social media to “expose” Patil.