BJP seeks probe into the flooding under the supervision of a retired judge

A day after Punjab Government constituted a five-member committee to probe the collapse of three flood gates at Madhopur headworks and suspended three officials of the Water Resources Department, BJP said it was an attempt to divert from the real issue of excessive and sudden release of water from Ranjit Sagar Dam.

Punjab BJP Chief Sunil Jakhar said an inquiry under the supervision of a retired judge should be conducted into the reasons for flooding.

“The inexperienced Aam Aadmi Party government awarded the contract for safety inspections of the headworks to an inexperienced company. Instead of clarifying on the release of water from the Ranjit Sagar Dam, the AAP is blaming the Centre for flooding in Punjab. We have also lodged a complaint 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”, said Jakhar.

Addressing a press conference, the state BJP chief said that the Punjab Government had convened the Assembly session merely as an attempt to divert attention from the real issue. He said that the real investigation should focus on: how much water was released from each dam during that period, when repairs of the dams and headworks were carried out and which company was given the contract for headworks safety inspections.

Giving facts, he said the greatest destruction was caused by the Ravi river, into which water flows from the Ranjit Sagar Dam that was entirely under the control of the state 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, he 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 down stream of Shahpur Kandi.

Jakhar, 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. He questioned why the gates at Madhopur Headworks were not opened in advance after issuing warnings before the water arrived. He also said that during the floods, 45 embankments were breached, out of which 42 were along the Ravi River, and the dam on this river is fully under the jurisdiction of the state government.

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 NIC code classifies as dealing in research in social sciences. He said that the government cannot escape its own culpability by suspending a few lower-level officers when it was responsible for awarding such a contract in the first place.

Further presenting facts, the BJP president said that in the Assembly, the Water Resources Minister had stated that ₹203 crore had been allocated for strengthening embankments. However, in reality, the government had allocated only ₹80 crore. He asked the government to clarify how many work orders had actually been issued for these projects by August 8.

Sunil Jakhar said that the state has riverside embankments stretching 1,000 km and 800 km of drains (drainage channels), yet the government failed to clean the drains in water looted areas in time or strengthen the riverbanks. He added that due to the lack of cleaning of these drains, thousands of acres of kinnow orchards had been destroyed, and even in Ludhiana’s Sasrali area, the breach in the river was caused by illegal mining. He said that more than 12,000 employees in the Irrigation Department had been charge-sheeted, and in such circumstances, how could government employees be expected to work effectively?