Central team in Punjab to assess flood losses
7-MEMBER PANEL Visits affected areas in Rupnagar; state puts loss at ₹1,219 cr
RUPNAGAR/CHANDIGARH: A sevenmember inter-ministerial central team on a two-day visit to Punjab to take stock of the damage caused due to floods in the state on Thursday went to the affected areas in Rupnagar district.
The team, led by Union home ministry joint secretary Anuj Sharma, visited Khairabad village near the district headquarters to see the damage caused to the embankment of the Budhki rivulet.
The team also met the floodhit people of various villages. The team will visit Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts on Friday and submit a report to the central government to ensure help to the affected people.
Later, they visited Chandpur Bela, Lodhipur, Burj , Harsa Bela villages in the Anandpur Sahib area and took stock of the damage caused by the floodwaters of the Sutlej river. Also, they listened to the problems being faced by villagers after the floods.
The team also saw the damage caused to the school building at Burj bridge and roads and embankments of Sutlej.
Rupnagar divisional commissioner Rahul Tiwari, deputy commissioner Sumeet Jarangal and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Swapan Sharma also accompanied the team.
MEETS STATE GOVT OFFICIALS
The team met officials of different state government departments in Mohali.
Special chief secretary (revenue) Karanbir Singh Sidhu briefed the team about the devastation caused by the floods and relief measures taken by the state government. He pegged the cumulative losses at ₹1,219.23 crore, adding that the entire belt along the Sutlej, Beas and the Ravi in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Rupnagar, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Moga, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts witnessed large scale destruction.
In a memorandum submitted to the central team, the estimate of the losses include ₹66.07 crore as submitted by the deputy commissioners, ₹5.37 crore as by the power department, ₹172.83 crore by the PWD (B&R), ₹38.72 crores by the rural development department, ₹577.7 crore by the development department, ₹72.64 crore by the health and family welfare department, ₹57.07 crore by the local government department, ₹23.45 crore by the animal husbandry department, ₹202.54 crore by the water resources department and ₹2.84 crore as reported by the water supply & sanitation department.