BJP demands probe by retired judge into recent flooding in Punjab

Chandigarh, Sep 21 (PTI) Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar on Sunday demanded a retired judge-led probe to investigate the reasons behind the recent flooding in the state, as he asked the Bhagwant Mann government about the quantum of water released from the Ranjit Sagar dam.

Jakhar said that extensive damage was caused by the Ravi river, which flows from the Ranjit Sagar dam in Pathankot, adding that it was entirely under the control of the state government.

Despite heavy rainfall warnings in the river's catchment area between August 20 and 26, very little water was released from the dam, claimed Jakhar.

According to the government's own claims, 2.75 lakh cusecs of water were released on August 27, he said, adding that a state government chief engineer had told the media that 4.70 lakh cusecs of water entered through small rivulets downstream of Shahpur Kandi.

Jakhar, however, said that between the Ranjit Sagar dam and the Madhopur headworks, there is no other river or rivulet that could bring such a huge volume of water.

He asserted that all of this water was, in fact, released from the Punjab government-controlled Ranjit Sagar dam.

Further taking on the AAP government, Jakhar said a company, which was given the contract of inspecting the strength of the Madhopur barrage in Pathankot, had no experience in hydrology and was actually a firm dealing in research in social sciences.

He criticised the state government for just suspending three officers but did not take action against those who awarded the contract to the company in the first place.

"Why was the contract given to this company? Whether funds allocated for strengthening embankments were spent," he asked the state government.

The state government on Saturday suspended three officers, including an executive engineer, in the Madhopur barrage incident in which two floodgates of the headworks in Pathankot district were damaged last month. It had blamed the company for wrongly certifying the strength of the Mahodhpur headworks gates.

Jakhar said the water resources minister had stated that Rs 203 crore had been allocated for strengthening embankments.

However, in reality, the government had allocated only Rs 80 crore, Jakhar claimed and asked the government to clarify how many work orders had actually been issued for these projects by August 8.

The state has riverside embankments stretching 1,000 km and 800 km of drains (drainage channels), yet the government failed to strengthen the riverbanks and clean the drains in time, Jakhar charged.

Due to the lack of cleaning of drains, thousands of acres of kinnow orchards had been destroyed, and even in Ludhiana's Sasrali area, the breach in the river was caused by illegal mining, he claimed.

"The entire issue should be probed by a retired judge in a time-bound manner so that real causes can be identified and it can be ensured that such a disaster does not occur again," said Jakhar while speaking to reporters here.

Jakhar further said he has lodged a complaint with the Chandigarh police regarding the "falsehoods" being spread on social media, blaming the central government and the BJP for the floods.

He further lashed out at the Mann government, accusing it of convening the state assembly session on the recent floods issue to deflect attention from the real issues. PTI CHS AMJ AMJ