Special session of Punjab Assembly to start from Sep 26

Chandigarh, Sep 25 (PTI) A special session of the Punjab Assembly from September 26 till 29 is likely to be a stormy affair as the opposition parties is expected to corner Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann-led government over the issue of recent floods that caused devastation in the state.

Mann had earlier stated that the special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha would focus on introducing "people-oriented" amendments to rules related to damage caused by the recent floods.

He had also stated that new laws concerning compensation for flood victims would also be introduced and approved during the session.

According to the tentative programme, the session would commence at 11 am with obituary references. Thereafter, there would be a discussion on 'rehabilitation of Punjab'.

There will be no sitting on September 27 and 28 being a weekend.

Proceedings will resume on September 29 with the resumption of discussion on 'rehabilitation of Punjab'.

Legislative business, if any, will be conducted after which the House will be adjourned sine-die.

Punjab faced one of its worst flood disasters in decades, primarily due to the swollen Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi rivers, along with seasonal rivulets resulting from heavy rainfall in their catchment areas in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Furthermore, heavy rains in Punjab exacerbated the flooding situation.

The worst-affected districts in the floods were Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Pathankot, Hoshiarpur, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Tarn Taran.

A total of 57 lives were lost and crops over five lakh acres were damaged in the recent floods.

Initial estimates pegged the total damage at around Rs 13,800 crore.

Special 'girdawari' (assessment of loss) is already underway in flood-hit areas to pay compensation to the affected people.

Congress MLA Sukhwinder Singh Kotli on Thursday hit out at the AAP government, accusing it of not undertaking any flood-prevention measures beforehand.

Kotli said that Water Resources Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal had claimed that the state government had spent Rs 276 crore on flood-prevention works.

The government should reply where this money was spent, he asked.

He further alleged that the state government did nothing for relief measures for the flood-affected people.

It was youths of voluntary organisations, NGOs who provided relief and other support to the flood-hit families, the Adampur MLA said.

Kotli also said his party would also demand answers from the state government about Rs 12,000 crore of funds meant for disaster relief.

Either the Centre is lying or the AAP government is lying, said the MLA, demanding that the AAP government should come out with a white paper on it.

During his recent visit to Punjab, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a financial assistance of Rs 1,600 crore for flood-hit Punjab in addition to the Rs 12,000 crore already in the state's kitty.

Later, a political slugfest erupted over the State Disaster Response Fund.

CM Mann had claimed that the state received Rs 5,012 crore under the SDRF since it was set up in 2010-11 and out of which Rs 3,820 crore had been spent.

However, the Punjab BJP had accused the AAP government of misleading about the Rs 12,000 crore of funds, while citing a Comptroller and Auditor General of India report as per which, Punjab had Rs 9,041.74 crore as SDRF funds till March 31, 2023.

With the funds received for the years 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26, the total amount reached Rs 12,000 crore, the BJP had claimed.

Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Partap Singh Bajwa wrote to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, seeking clarity over the issue of SDRF funds. PTI CHS NB NB