CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are locked in a blame game over the cause of the recent floods in Punjab, while the Congress has termed it a collective failure of both parties in handling the crisis.
Punjab Water Resources Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal rebutted Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s allegation that the floods were triggered by illegal mining.
Calling the charges baseless and misleading, Goyal said the floods were caused by record rainfall and unprecedented inflow of water in rivers. “The present focus must remain on relief and rehabilitation of affected families instead of political blame games,” he added.
Goyal said Punjab recorded an extraordinary discharge of 14.11 lakh cusecs in the Ravi this year, surpassing the 11.2 lakh cusecs of 1988. He added that strengthening works worth over Rs 200 crore in the last two years had ensured embankments withstood the pressure, with no breaches along government-controlled bundhs of the Beas.
He clarified that mining is banned in the Ravi within five kilometers of the international border due to Army and BSF restrictions, while the Beas is a declared conservation reserve where mining is prohibited. No mining exists in the Ghaggar, while in the Sutlej, operations are allowed only under approved mine plans and with clearance from the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). He stressed that regulated mining does not endanger embankments, and no activity is permitted within 100 meters of flood protection structures. Goyal reiterated that unprecedented rainfall alone caused the floods.
On Friday, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan alleged that illegal mining had weakened embankments and contributed to the disaster, while assuring that the Centre would help the state recover from the crisis.
Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, however, said that after waiting in vain for relief announcements from the Centre, Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 31 seeking the release of over Rs 60,000 crore owed to the state. This included pending GST compensation, RDF and MDF dues, and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana funds. Mann also sought amendments to the SDRF and NDRF rules for adequate compensation to flood victims.
Cheema hit out at the BJP-led Centre for politicising the loss of lives, calling it “very unfortunate” that the Prime Minister had not responded even after 25 days. He said while aid was extended to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan after an earthquake, the same empathy was missing for the people of Punjab. Rejecting the Centre’s claims that illegal mining caused the floods, he termed it a blatant display of bias against the state and asked why similar questions were not raised about floods in other states.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa attacked both AAP and BJP for their “collective failure” in handling the floods, accusing them of negligence, corruption, and hypocrisy. He said the Punjab–Haryana High Court had repeatedly reprimanded the Punjab government for ignoring rampant illegal mining, highlighting the involvement of officers, police, and politicians in collusion with the mining mafia.
Bajwa alleged that illegal mining had weakened riverbanks, damaged infrastructure, and caused irreversible environmental loss. “If illegal mining was flourishing in broad daylight for years, what was the Union Government doing? Why did leaders like Shivraj Singh Chouhan remain silent when our rivers were being looted? Their silence is complicity,” he said.