Centre urged to increase aid inflow to Punjab

After visiting the flood-ravaged areas of Ajnala on Sunday, Cabinet Minister Aman Arora, who is also the state president of the Aam Aadmi Party, urged the Centre to increase the inflow of aid.

He said Rs 6,800 per acre, Rs four lakh to the next of the kin in case of casualty, Rs 1.20 lakh compensation for a house were insufficient. He called upon the state BJP to convince its government at the Centre to meet the demand of his government. He added that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had already sent a communiqué regarding this to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He expressed his disappointment over the Centre not sending any of its representatives to take stock of the floods in Punjab.

Accompanied by Cabinet Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO, Ajnala MLA Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Arora rode a tractor to visit flood ravaged areas.

While interacting with the residents of the constituency, Arora said that the damage was massive. “I assure you that the entire government under the leadership of the CM is standing with all the flood-affected people,” he added.

A special Girdawari will be conducted for building a dam once the flood recedes, he said. The officials concerned and experts from the field iron out a plan to this end after consulting local residents so that the situation doesn’t repeat.

On this occasion, Cabinet Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO expressed his sympathy with the people for the damage caused by the heavy rains in the mountains and said that no one had the power to stop nature, but now we could all come out of this crisis together.

Dhaliwal thanked Arora for sharing the grief of the residents. He said the water from Ravi had washed away the entire road infrastructure and pushed the constituency back 20 years.