Army, NGOs chip in as Punjab ups measures to rescue flood-ravaged

The Punjab Government, the Army, disaster response forces, civilians and non-governmental organisations have joined hands for relief and rescue operations in flood-hit areas of the state as the rain abated.

With operations to rescue those stuck in deluged areas, several kilometres away from the swollen Ravi and the Beas, going on in full swing, the state has also started assessing its losses.

A preliminary inquiry into the washing away of three floodgates at the Madhopur Headworks is underway. Official sources told The Tribune that the water flow in the Ravi at the headworks on Tuesday was over 14 lakh cusecs, thus having crossed the previous record of 11 cusecs in the floods of 1988. This led to three of the 54 floodgates at the headworks being washed away.

On the basis of the ongoing inquiry into the reason for the delay in the opening of the floodgates, the government has decided to issue a chargesheet to an Executive Engineer in Canals Division, posted at Pathankot. Of the 54 floodgates, only 23 could be opened because of massive silt deposition at the base of the gates. This allegedly lead to breaches in the embankments of the river.

CM, MLAs to donate one-month salary

Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann, his entire Cabinet and all AAP MLAs have decided to donate one-month’s salary towards the flood relief efforts in the state.

Water released from dams

The Punjab flood situation has become critical not just because of the swollen Ravi, Beas and the Sutlej, but also because of the controlled release of water from three dams as the reservoirs are full. On Thursday, 95,000 cusecs of water was released from the Pong Dam, 74,000 cusecs from Ranjit Sagar Dam and 50,000 cusecs from the Bhakra Dam.

Across the state, around 500 villages — 284 in Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Pathankot alone — have been severely affected by the floods. Two persons have died and one chargeman was swept away in the swollen Ravi waters from the Madhopur Headworks. He is still reported missing. Hundreds of animals have been swept away, breaches reported on the embankments of both the Ravi and the Beas; and standing crops on around 2.90 lakh acres of land damaged because of the floods, mainly in the three border districts, besides Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Fazilka. Crops on 26,020 acres are still submerged.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann visited flood-affected areas in Amritsar and said his government was duty-bound to bail out people from the crisis. He said there was no dearth of funds to provide relief material.

Almost 5,300 people have been evacuated from flood-affected areas, said a senior government functionary. In Ferozepur, Water Resources Minister Barinder Goyal said 13 flood relief camps had been set up and 2,000 persons rescued. While 2,000 persons have been evacuated in Gurdaspur and brought to safer places, 710 were evacuated in Amritsar and 480 in Kapurthala. In Tarn Taran, Transport Minister Laljit Bhullar oversaw the rescue efforts using motorboats to evacuate stranded people. The ruling party has put all its leaders on relief and rescue work with Ferozepur and Fazilka MLAs Rajnish Dahiya and Narinder Pal Singh too chipping in their respective districts.

While Army, Air Force, National Disaster Response Force and BSF personnel have been helping the state in its rescue and relief operations in the critically hit areas of Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Dera Baba Nanak, Ajnala, Ramdass, Sultanpur Lodhi, Ferozepur and Fazilka, many NGOs and religious deras like Khalsa Aid and Baba Sukha Singh’s Kar Sewa Sect have been helping not just in strengthening the river embankments and bundhs built on these, but also working on evacuating people trapped in homes cut off because of the floodwaters.

Langars are being organised by social and religious organisations in all eight flood-hit districts, while relief material, including food and medicines, is being provided to the affected people.

Meanwhile, Director (Land Records) Gulpreet Singh Aulakh has been deployed as the nodal officer for the state flood control room to oversee all relief and rescue operations across the state.