The political confrontation between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP escalated on Wednesday after Union Minister of State Ravneet Singh Bittu accused Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of “blatantly lying” by claiming that the Centre had not released any flood-relief funds.
Reacting to Mann’s statement in Gurdaspur, where he distributed cheques worth ₹377 crore to flood-affected families, Bittu said the Centre was releasing funds and accused the CM of “misleading people”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a ₹1,600 crore interim flood-relief package for Punjab during his September 9 visit to the state’s flood-hit areas. However, at Dera Baba Nanak on Wednesday, Mann reiterated that “the state had suffered losses to the tune of around Rs 13,500 crore due to the floods” and demanded that “the Union government should immediately release the Rs 1,600 crore relief package that had been publicly announced earlier”. This, he said, was not the first time he was asserting that the Centre had yet to transfer this amount.
Mann’s renewed attack on the Centre came a day before Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s scheduled visit to Punjab on Thursday. Chouhan is set to visit a village in Moga and later Jalandhar to review rural development works, flood-relief measures and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) implementation, besides interacting with farmers.
His visit follows his October 14 trip to Ludhiana, where he had announced that the Centre had approved ₹1.60 lakh per family for the reconstruction of 36,703 houses damaged in the recent floods. “Rs 1.60 lakh per family has been approved for the reconstruction of 36,703 damaged houses, including Rs 1.20 lakh for the construction of houses, and Rs 40,000 for toilet facilities,” he had said.
Emphasising that the assistance was part of a broader central package under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and agricultural aid schemes, Chouhan had added: “The Centre stands firmly with the people of Punjab in their time of need.”
On Wednesday evening, Bittu cited Chouhan’s earlier clarification, saying: “Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan last month had already clarified the Centre’s contribution. He is again in Punjab on Wednesday and Thursday to share more details. The Punjab government had sent a list of 36,703 damaged houses, and the Centre has already released ₹587 crore for these.”
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He added that under PM Awas Yojana, the Centre provides ₹1.20 lakh for houses with damaged roofs and ₹40,000 for toilets, totalling ₹1.6 lakh per house. “All these funds are from the Centre, and AAP ministers and the CM are distributing the cheques,” he said.
Countering the state’s earlier claim of providing ₹60,000 per house under MGNREGA, he said, “Even these funds come from the Centre.” Chouhan, meanwhile, posted a video on X Thursday morning outlining his day-long programme, stating, “In Punjab, we increased work days of MGNREGA workers from 100 to 150 days annually so that they can be compensated in case they suffered because of floods.”
Bittu further detailed the state’s submissions to the Centre, noting lists of damaged houses: 2,997 from Amritsar, 1,602 from Ferozepur, around 2,000 and 1,500 from Jalandhar and Pathankot respectively, nearly 2,400 from Tarn Taran and 10,926 from Gurdaspur. He added: “₹222 crore had recently been disbursed to Punjab farmers under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi as the latest instalment of ₹2,000 per farmer. In the coming days, we will reveal details of more funds given under heads like cattle loss, utensils, and others.”
Charges and counter-charges
State BJP working president Ashwani Sharma also hit out at the CM, posting on X: “Bhagwant Mann ji, you too have now begun telling lies, influenced by Kejriwal’s style. Ask the Chief Secretary to write to the Centre stating that the ₹1,600 crore has not been received. Send me a copy so I can take up the matter. If the Chief Secretary does not send such a letter, your allegations stand exposed—just like your promise of ₹1,000 to women or compensation to all flood-affected families.”
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AAP leaders countered the BJP’s claims. “First, the BJP should tell where the ₹15 lakh they promised is. Where are the two crore jobs every year? The one who has actually given money always has stronger evidence,” AAP Punjab general secretary Baltej Pannu said, challenging Sharma to present proof that the Centre had already released the ₹1,600 crore.
The political sparring over flood-relief funds has intensified, especially after PM Modi stated in September that ₹12,000 crore under the State Disaster Response Fund was lying with the Punjab government and should be used for flood relief. The Punjab Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues, however, had said this was a misrepresentation of accounting figures.
