Accusations fly thick & fast as AAP, Congress spar over floods again

Ruling AAP and Congress legislators once again hurled brickbats at each other during the special Assembly session on Monday, with the main Opposition daring the government to lodge an FIR against the Centre-controlled Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) for the “mismanagement” of dams.

Meanwhile, the BJP, which has two MLAs, held a “people’s assembly” in the city.

Though the two BJP MLAs were absent, Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu was seen seated in the Governor’s Gallery, passing an aggressive message through hand gestures to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann during his address.

The heated exchanges between AAP and Congress members took place in the backdrop of the ruling party on Sunday seeking support of the Opposition over the issue of flood relief.

The demand had drawn a sharp retort from Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, who alleged that the government wanted their backing to corner the Centre while covering up its own failures.

Under fierce Opposition attack on Monday, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema opened the front against Bajwa, accusing him of buying land on the Beas banks with the “motive of sand mining”. He alleged that Bajwa then pressured the state government to spend public funds on strengthening the embankment along the riverbank.

Bajwa rejected the charge, clarifying that he had bought the land legally and paid the required stamp duty to the state government.

Taking on the government over the flood preparedness, Bajwa rejected Water Resources Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal’s statement that all preparations for flood mitigation had been completed by July 14, a month before riverwaters submerged swathes of land.

Bajwa claimed that the facts proved otherwise.

He said on July 22, the Chief Engineer (Vigilance) of the department had written to the Chief Engineer (Drainage), directing him to review flood protection works. Bajwa said executive engineers from several districts themselves admitted that no flood mitigation or drainage repair works had started in critical areas, including Anandpur Sahib, Ropar, SAS Nagar, Patiala, Pathankot and Ferozepur.

“These facts clearly expose the lies of Barinder Goyal and highlight the government’s negligence,” he added.

The treasury benches led by Goyal opposed Bajwa.

Referring to his claims that seven lakh cusecs of water was released from the satte-controlled Ranjit Sagar Dam, Goyal said the actual figure was only around 2.15 lakh cusecs.

Bajwa had on Friday demanded the resignation of the minister and the suspension of the Irrigation Secretary Krishan Kumar over the issue. Seeing the presence of Bittu in the House, Congress MLA Pargat Singh dared the AAP government to register an FIR against the BBMB for “pushing Punjab into floods”.

“If Himachal Pradesh can file an FIR against the BBMB, why not Punjab,” he asked suggesting all party MLAs to stage a dharna against the BJP at Delhi.

Punjab Minister and AAP’s state president Aman Arora held the previous Congress and SAD-BJP governments, along with the BJP-led Centre, responsible for the disaster, cataloguing a series of catastrophic policy failures in the past.

He said the Congress government in 2017 took a decision to declare a 260-km stretch of the Beas a Ramsar site, which he said made desilting of the river virtually impossible.