Punjab's final memo on flood losses yet to be readied

Eight days after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann met the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting him for a special financial assistance for the flood-hit Punjab, and the latter sought a memorandum listing the damages caused by floods, the state government has been unable to prepare the same.

A second meeting to give final shape to the memorandum was convened today by Punjab Chief Secretary KAP Sinha here this evening. However, as the estimates of the loss suffered by the state prepared by different departments fell short of the original assessment of the loss presented to the inter-ministerial Central teams and the Prime Minister, the final memorandum is still not ready. It is learnt that there was a gap of nearly Rs 1,000 crore in the two assessments, which the departments had been told to match and send their final report by Thursday afternoon.

While the state government had originally said that the losses suffered were to the tune of Rs 13,832 crore, the estimates prepared by different departments about damages to public and private infrastructure now put the figure at around Rs 12,800 crore. During the first meeting held on Monday, to prepare the final figures of losses suffered, the departments had reportedly come up with a figure of Rs 10,000 crore loss. Following this, the departments were told to again go in for an upward revision of the estimates.

“There were some minor discrepancies, which are now being rectified,” said a senior government official. He said the final figure of the loss would be ready by Thursday. Despite repeated attempts to contact Chief Secretary Sinha, he did not respond to the calls.

The Tribune has learnt that not all departments were called for the upward revision of ther estimates. Amongst others present at the meeting were officials of the Agriculture Department, Animal Husbandry Department, Public Works Department and Rural Development Department.

The Agriculture Department, which now claims that crops on over 3 lakh acres were completely damaged, while crops on the remaining 1.50 lakh acres were partially damaged, has been told to reassess the figures, include the figures for giving compensation for Chinese virus in crops, and money required for providing free seeds.

The Education Department has been told to also include the figures (about Rs 570 crore) for repairing schools declared unsafe. The Rural Development Department has also revised its figures from Rs 2,550 crore given on Monday to Rs 3,550 crore today, by claiming that additional money will be required for desilting and cleaning up the flood-ravaged villages.

The PWD Department, which had claimed it suffered a loss of Rs 1,600 crore due to the damaged roads, culverts and bridges, was also in the process of assessing damage caused to its buildings. “The exact measurements of damaged roads are being done… which may require us to revise the estimates,” said a senior officer. Since hundreds of thousands of houses have been completely or partially damaged, their assessment will also be sent separately.

Officials say that once these are finalised, they will be sending the memorandum to the Centre which, in turn, may conduct a separate reassessment.