Sukhbir Badal promises holistic solution to Punjab floods if voted to power

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday said his party would lay concrete bundhs and embankments in flood-prone areas once it came to power in the 2027 assembly elections to eradicate the menace of floods once and for all from Punjab.

Addressing villagers who had gathered at the Dhussi Bundh in Phillaur constituency, the SAD president said, “Both the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have failed you. They have even failed to maintain your bundhs, forget strengthening them. This has increased the menace of floods in Punjab manifold. I am committed to finding a holistic solution to the entire issue. Besides laying concrete at crucial bundhs, we will also finish Part II of the project, of laying concrete embankments to control the fury of the Ghaggar.”

The farmers, while interacting with the SAD president, said, “We are living in misery since the last floods in 2023. Even roads, which had been damaged in the 2023 floods, have not been repaired even as no effort was taken to make the Dhussi Bundh strong. The AAP government abandoned us earlier and continues to ignore us even now.”

Badal, on his part, assured the village committees that he would provide 4,000 litres of diesel to strengthen the bundh, get earthworks done on roads and clear sand from the fields offarmers. He also assured to send tractors and JCB machines for this purpose, besides giving financial help to the village committees on the spot.

The SAD president, who was accompanied by ex-Phillaur MLA Baldev Singh Khaira, also disclosed that the party was dispatching maize silage for livestock to all flood-affected farmers and requested the village committees to give their requirements to Khaira. He said besides, a comprehensive programme had been devised to distribute certified wheat seeds to farmers for one lakh acres of land. He said the SGPC had also decided to distribute certified seed for one lakh acres of land.

He also appealed to the Punjab government not to delay compensation for crop losses. “The time to is now when the farmers need it the most to prepare their fields for the next crop,” he said and added that the AAP government should also distribute certified seed for the remaining two lakh acres besides providing DAP fertiliser to farmers free of cost.