Congress seeks inquiry by HC judge into release of dam water

The Congress on Friday sought an inquiry by a sitting High Court judge into the circumstances that led to the state’s worst floods in decades, alleging that huge amount of Ravi water was released from the Ranjit Sagar Dam, leading to submerging of thousands of acres.

The party also demanded the resignation of Water Resources Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal and suspension of department Secretary Krishan Kumar, holding them responsible for the situation.

The demands were raised in the Assembly and also during the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting, during which the state’s main Opposition party decided to corner the government.

Apart from Congress MLAs, the meeting was attended by state party chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, who is the Ludhiana Lok Sabha MP.

Ravinder Dalvi, All-India Congress Committee (AICC)-appointed co-incharge for Punjab, was also present.

While instructing the MLAs to corner ruling AAP on the release of water from the dam, Leader of the Opposition Partap Bajwa said on August 26, the Punjab Government released only 500 cusecs of water from it.

“Two days later, on August 28, it discharged an unprecedented 6-7 lakh cusecs. This reckless release broke the gates of the Madhopur barrage and inundated large parts of Pathankot, Gurdaspur and Amritsar,” he said.

Demanding the resignation of Goyal and suspension of Secretary Kumar, Bajwa said, “As the Secretary of the department had chargesheeted over 8,000 officials of the department (in different cases), there were few experienced officials left to manage the floods on the ground. The truth about holding water in the Ranjit Sagar Dam till the last moment should be known to the common man.”

Deputy Leader of the Opposition Aruna Chaudhary said learning little from the devastation of floods that led to the Ravi changing its course, the government should depute a technical team to ensure that mining was not carried out close to the river.

She highlighted a recent case of Makoran village in Dinanagar, where she had to intervene in stopping mining close to the Ravi river.