Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar on Sunday blamed the recent floods on the AAP Government and a company entrusted with safety inspections of headworks, and filed a police complaint seeking to expose those who he alleged were trying to defame the Central Government and his party online over the disaster.
“A complaint has been lodged with the Chandigarh police regarding the falsehoods being spread on social media blaming the central government and the BJP for the floods, so that the true masterminds behind this ‘factory of lies’ can be exposed,” Jakhar said at a press conference in Chandigarh.
Jakhar said the Punjab Government had convened the Assembly session merely as an attempt to divert attention from the real issue. He said the real investigation should focus on how much water was released from each dam during that period, when the dams and headworks were repaired, and which company was given the contract for headworks safety inspections.
Jakhar said that the greatest destruction was caused by the Ravi river, into which water flows from the Ranjit Sagar dam, which he emphasised was entirely under the control of the Punjab Government and had no connection whatsoever with the Bhakra Beas Management Board or the Central Government. He said that despite heavy rainfall warnings in the Ravi catchment area between August 20 and 26, very little water was released from the dam, and according to the Government’s own claims, 2.75 lakh cusecs of water were released on August 27.
On this occasion, Jakhar also shared a video of the chief engineer’s statement with the media, in which the engineer claimed that 4.70 lakh cusecs of water entered through small rivulets downstream of Shahpur Kandi. He, however, said that between Ranjit Sagar dam and 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 Ranjit Sagar dam, which is under the control of the Punjab Government.
Jakhar questioned why the gates at Madhopur headworks were not opened in advance after proper warnings. He also said that during the floods, 45 embankments were breached. Out of these, 42 were along the Ravi river, and the dam on this river is fully under the jurisdiction of the state government.
‘Company with no experience in hydrological sciences’
Raising another issue, he said that the company “Level 9,” which was given the contract to inspect the strength of Madhopur headworks gates, had no experience in hydrological sciences and was actually a firm with an NIC code classified as dealing in research in social sciences. He said the Government could not escape its own culpability by suspending a few lower-level officers when it was responsible for awarding such a contract in the first place.
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The BJP president said that in the Assembly, the water resources minister stated that Rs 203 crore had been allocated for strengthening embankments. However, Jakhar said, the Government had allocated only Rs 80 crore. He 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, yet the Government failed to clean the drains in waterlogged areas in time or strengthen the riverbanks, Jakhar alleged.
“Due to the lack of cleaning of these drains, thousands of acres of kinnow orchards had been destroyed in Fazilka, and even in Ludhiana’s Sasrali area, the breach in the river was caused by illegal mining,” the BJP leader said.
Jakhar suggested an impartial investigation under the supervision of a retired judge to identify the real causes behind the floods and to ensure that such a disaster does not occur again.
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