Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday demanded immediate inclusion of Punjab among the states identified for on-the-spot assessment of the flood situation by an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT).

The Centre has listed 11 states that for IMCT review of the flood damage but Punjab does not find mention in it, even though the state has witnessed large-scale flooding in many areas following unprecedented rains.

The Chief Minister expressed surprise over Punjab’s non-inclusion, and has urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to immediately rectify the situation.

“Surprised on the exclusion of Punjab from the list of States to be visited by the Inter-Ministerial Central Team to assess losses in flood-affected areas in different States. Request HM @AmitShah ji to direct the Central Team to visit Punjab to assess the huge losses,” Capt Amarinder tweeted.

The IMCT was constituted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in pursuance of a decision taken at a high level committee meeting on August 19. The committee had decided to break away from the past practice of waiting for the affected state to submit a memorandum seeking central assessment.

The IMCT has been mandated to visit the flood affected states of Meghalya, Assam, Tripura, Bihar, Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujrat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala, for making final recommendations to the Central Government for allocation of flood assistance to the flood ravaged states.

Capt Amarinder pointed out that he had already written to the Prime Minister to seek a special flood relief package of Rs 1000 crore to address the losses resulting from floods in Punjab. It is estimated, as per initial calculations, that the state has suffered damage worth Rs 1700 crore due to the floods.

It may be recalled that flooding in river Sutlej due to the discharge of water from Bhakra Dam, the heaviest since 1988, had caused extensive damage to the standing crops and inundation of residential areas in the villages.

MINISTERS SUPERVISE RELIEF AND RESCUE

 In the wake of flood in Doaba and Malwa, Punjab Ministers as well as the Speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha visited the affected areas on Saturday to supervise the relief work.

Rural Development and Panchyats Minister, Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Health Minister, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Water Resources Minister, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Revenue Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu as well as Speaker Punjab Vidhan Sabha Rana KP Singh spent the entire day overseeing the relief and rescue operations.

The Health Minister visited Medical Camps at various places in Kapurthala and Jalandhar including worst affected Lohian area.