Punjab's rich panchayats told to chip in with funds

The Punjab Government has asked 288 cash-rich panchayats to contribute 5 per cent of their reserves for flood relief efforts even as a mystery surrounds Rs 12,128 crore allocated by the Centre to the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).

In total, these panchayats have Rs 618.83 crore in fixed deposits. If the panchayats make the contribution, the state government will immediately get Rs 30.94 crore for flood relief works.

This comes a day after the Opposition parties in the state — including the Congress, BJP and the SAD — demanded a central probe into the alleged misuse of the relief fund. The issue had come up when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a visit to flood-hit areas of Punjab, announced a financial package of Rs 1,600 crore and mentioned about the SDRF fund in the state’s kitty.

A letter directing all district development and panchayat officers to ask the 288 panchayats to contribute was issued by the Director, Rural Development and Panchayats.

The letter, a copy of which is with The Tribune, has given details of the bank and the accounts in which the panchayats have been asked to deposit money.

The letter mentions the panchayats and the fixed deposits available with each of them. The highest amount is available with the Patiala’s Shambhu Kalan panchayat, which has Rs 79.38 crore in fixed deposit. It is followed by Mohali’s Behlolpur at Rs 43.50 crore, Dararhi at Rs 27 crore and Sural Kalan at Rs 21.28 crore.

Commenting on it, Rural Development Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond said, “I have appealed to the financially capable panchayats to come forward and help in relief and rehabilitation efforts of ravaged villages.”

Meanwhile, the controversy over the actual SDRF amount available with the state deepened further, with state government officials maintaining that Punjab had received Rs 6,190 crore from the Centre under it for the past two decades.

A government official said the state had itself contributed Rs 2,042 crore to the fund during this time, taking the total amount available to Rs 8,232 crore.

“Since March 2022, when AAP assumed power in the state, Punjab received only Rs 1,582 crore as disaster relief fund, of which Rs 649 crore has been spent. The BJP is lying about the funds available and should stop maligning the government for petty political gains,” said Finance Minister Harpal Cheema.

He said since the withdrawal of money from the SDRF was considered as borrowing on high interest rate (2 per cent over the repo rate), the figure of Rs 12,128 crore had been arrived at by including this interest.