BHOPAL: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday demanded that the Union government declare the recent floods in Madhya Pradesh as a "national calamity".
In a letter written in Hindi to Union home minister Amit Shah, he described the floods in northern MP in the first week of this month as the "worst in the last hundred years".
Houses and agriculture suffered heavy damage in Bhind, Sheopur, Gwalior, Datia, Shivpuri and other districts, the former chief minister said.
He blamed mismanagement of water release from a dam for the situation, adding that 30 people died in flood-related incidents, thousands of cattle perished and crops on lakhs of hectares were damaged.
The floods should be declared as a "national calamity" and the Union government should immediately announce a package for relief and rehabilitation, he demanded.