Too little, too late: AAP on PM's grant for Punjab

Too little a package, too late a visit. That's how Punjab’s Aam Aadmi Party government has summed up the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the flood-ravaged state this afternoon.

The Punjab Government had demanded a relief package of Rs 20,000 crore from the Centre yesterday. But Modi announced a grant of Rs 1,600 crore today. AAP leaders said when the state government asked him for enhancing the package, the PM said the state had Rs 12,000 crore in the disaster relief fund, which could be used.

“The grant announced today is not even a drop in the ocean. We have suffered losses worth thousands of crores, with these floods being the biggest disaster to have struck Punjab in recent history. This meagre amount, in comparison to the losses suffered, is an insult to the state and its people, who have played the most important role in nation building, ensuring food security and protecting the borders of the country,” said AAP president Aman Arora, who had received the PM at Pathankot this afternoon, along with Food and Supply Minister Lalchand Kataruchak. AAP general secretary Deepak Bali said the grant was an eyewash.

The state government has suffered losses estimated to the tune of Rs 13,800 crore. A presentation on the losses suffered by the state to public infrastructure like buildings of schools, colleges, health institutions, veterinary hospitals, power distribution and transmission networks, roads, culverts and bridges, river protection works and embankments was reportedly made before the PM by state Chief Secretary KAP Sinha. The state government has said, as per the initial estimates, Punjab needs Rs 13,800 crore for rebuilding its damaged infrastructure alone.

A similar presentation on the losses was also made before the two inter-ministerial central teams after they had surveyed the state last week.

With Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann remaining indisposed and hospitalised because of an infection, a delegation of four ministers was requisitioned by the state government to present its case for a relief package before Modi. While he was received at Pathankot by Arora and Kataruchak, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian and Revenue and Rehabilitation Minister Hardeep Singh Mundian were present at Tibri when Sinha gave a presentation. The duo also reportedly spoke to the PM, pleading that the relief package be enhanced and the pending dues of Rs 60,000 crore from the Centre be released immediately.

Later, Mundian said the PM found time to come to Punjab after the state has been battling the disaster for three weeks, and instead of a healing touch, he had put a band-aid on the wound. “When I said that the grant was too small, he rebuked me and said I probably don’t understand Hindi and he had already announced Rs 1,600 crore. If he sees that Punjab has Rs 12,000 crore in disaster relief funds, does he not see how our compensation for the GST, RDF, MDF and Grameen Sadak Yojana, worth Rs 60,000 crore is still pending,” he said.

Khudian said Punjab and Punjabis have always stood by the nation. “In Punjab’s most difficult time, the country should come forward and help the state tide over the crisis and rebuild itself. At least, the sum of Rs 8,000 crore held back as the RDF and MDF could have been released,” he said.