CHANDIGARH: Punjab opposition leader Partap Singh Bajwa on Monday targeted the Bhagwant Mann government and the Centre for abandoning the flood-hit state in its "darkest hour."
"We have all seen how AAP MLAs are now claiming that it was the fault of officers, and even cabinet minister Barinder Kumar Goyal went on record saying he would suspend erring officials. But the people of Punjab are asking one simple question — why did Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann convene the first flood control meeting only on June 5 when the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had already issued warnings of heavy rainfall as early as May?” Bajwa questioned.
The Centre, he added, cannot escape blame either. Flood management is not the responsibility of the State alone. The Central Water Commission (CWC), under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, has a crucial role in collecting hydrological data, issuing flood forecasts, monitoring river basins, and guiding states in reservoir and flood management. Yet, despite CWC’s wide network of forecasting stations and technical expertise, there was no convergence between the Centre and the State to prevent the disaster.
Bajwa added that the CWC regularly publishes data on rainfall, river flow, reservoir storage, and inflow forecasts for dams, all of which are meant to ensure efficient planning and timely response. However, Punjab witnessed the opposite — floodgates were not repaired or opened in time, desilting of canals and drains was neglected year after year, and coordination between irrigation, disaster management, and revenue departments was absent. The Centre, too, failed to ensure real-time coordination and allowed Punjab to be left vulnerable.
"Instead of taking preventive measures and protecting the people, they now indulge in blame games, token announcements, and photo-ops. The annadatas of Punjab have lost their crops, homes, and livelihoods. They deserve accountability, not excuses. It is high time both governments admit their failure and take serious steps to ensure that such tragedies are not repeated,” he said.
"What we are witnessing today is a complete collapse of governance. Punjab’s farmers have lost their entire season’s livelihood, yet they are being offered just Rs 6,750 per acre for partial loss — less than 10 per cent of the real earnings. One acre of paddy yields over Rs 70,000, but this so-called compensation is nothing more than an eyewash.”
Bajwa explained why Punjab had stayed out of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) since 2017. "We objected because the scheme assessed losses at the village level instead of individual fields, imposed extra premium burdens, and delivered compensation after long delays. The only beneficiaries were insurance companies, not farmers,” he said.
Hitting out at the Centre, Bajwa said, "at a time when Punjab needed the Centre’s support the most, the Prime Minister has not announced even a single rupee of relief. Nor has he shown the will to reform and extend PMFBY in a way that suits Punjab’s realities. This is nothing short of criminal neglect of the very annadatas who feed the nation.”
Bajwa demanded that the Centre and state act immediately by extending a reformed PMFBY to Punjab with plot-level coverage and speedy payouts, creating a state-level insurance fund, expanding insurance to cover crops, livestock, and farmer health, while also investing in early warning systems, embankments, and desilting so that farmers get relief that is fast, fair, and future-proof.
“Unless PMFBY is reformed and extended, and unless Punjab establishes its own robust insurance mechanism, our farmers will continue to drown in despair every time nature strikes. Both Modi and Mann must be held answerable for this betrayal of Punjab’s annadatas, ‘’ he said.
Meanwhile, Punjab Congress president and member of parliament from Ludhiana, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring demanded a probe against the mismanagement of dams and water headworks and also the criminal negligence of people involved in their management.
He said that there was one common question asked by people, as why did the authorities, whosoever responsible, allow the water in dams to overflow till the last minute. “Why was not the water released gradually in advance, so that later the dams could hold the extra water?” he asked, noting that had it been done on time, the extent of devastation may well have been minimized.
He also referred to the crashing of three floodgates of the ‘Madhopur headworks’, which, he said, happened because these were not properly maintained. He said, since extra water from the headworks was also not released on time, it led to huge pressure and eventually crashing of the gates.
The PCC president called for fixing the responsibility for this disaster and punishing those guilty. `` We do not expect people at the responsible positions not to act in time and that too at such critical times”, he observed, asking, what are they meant for?