Punjab Government on Monday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to send a team to assess the damage caused by recent floods in the State and announce a special rehabilitation package.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, in a letter to the Prime Minister, urged the former to send a central team from the Ministry of Agriculture and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) instantly to assess the situation and immediately revise the natural calamity norms to ensure adequate compensation for the affected people.
Badal has also written to the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde with similar requests.
The Chief Minister stated that he had toured the affected areas of the State in the last few days and had seen the plight of the people whose houses, crops and livestock had been damaged. “Apart from human life, there has been substantial damage to government and community-owned infrastructure,” he added in the letter.
“The relief allowed under the guidelines for utilisation of the State Disaster Response Fund is totally inadequate,” Badal said, adding that the State Government was working hard to alleviate the sufferings of the people.
Claiming that the affected farmers had spent approximately Rs25,000 to Rs30,000 per acre of land on seed, fertiliser, insecticide and irrigation, Badal asked the Centre to provide compensation of at least Rs20,000 per acre.
Surface drains, which are a lifeline for farmers in several districts, are in a poor condition, Badal said, adding that, “the traditional drainage system requires a major overhaul”.
“A team led by Planning Commission member Mihir Shah had studied the water-logging and drainage problem in the State with a view to pave way for central funding, but we are still awaiting its outcome,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also requested the Chairman 14th Finance Commission Dr YV Reddy to personally visit the flood affected areas along with his other members of the team at the earliest to gather first hand impression of the misery of farmers and to take stock of the damage caused as well as the inadequacies of existing surface drainage infrastructure so that ground realities could be brought to their notice for release of special package to execute reconstruction and upgradation of damaged infrastructure on war footing.
Badal also offered to provide helicopter and arrange all logistics from Delhi to facilitate their visit in the flood affected areas. In case, it was not possible immediately, the Chief Minister requested them to plan this visit as part of their interaction with the State Government on September 6 or 7.