Chandigarh, September 12: A seven member Inter Ministerial Central Team led by the Joint Secretary (CIS), Union Ministry of Home Affairs Anuj Sharma met the top brass of Punjab Government here today at the ISB, Mohali. The purpose of the visit of Central Team was to assess the damage in wake of floods in several districts of Punjab.
The Special Chief Secretary (Revenue) Karanbir Singh Sidhu briefed the team about the devastation caused by the flood fury besides the post deluge relief measures undertaken by the State Government. He pegged the cumulative losses at Rs. 1219.23 crore. He further said that the entire belt of Sutlej/Beas/Ravi along with districts of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Roopnagar, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Moga, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Tarn Taran witnessed large-scale destruction.
The Special Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Gurkirat Kirpal Singh briefed about the relief and rescue operations carried out as well as the rehabilitation efforts afoot to extend succour to the aggrieved. Focussing on the farming community in particular, he emphatically put forward the case of Punjab for the financial aid. He also reiterated that the State Government would spare no effort to provide assistance to the people.
As per the memorandum submitted to the Inter Ministerial Central Team, the estimate of the losses include Rs. 66.07 crore as submitted by the Deputy Commissioners, Rs. 5.37 crores as reported by the Power Department, Rs. 172.83 crores by the PWD (B&R), Rs. 38.72 crores by the Rural Development Department, Rs. 577.7 crores by the Development Department, Rs. 72.64 crore by the Health and Family Welfare Department, Rs. 57.07 crore by the Local Government Department, Rs. 23.45 crore by the Animal Husbandry Department, Rs. 202.54 crore by the Water Resources Department and Rs. 2.84 crores as reported by the Water Supply & Sanitation Department.
Lauding the efforts undertaken by the Punjab Government to tackle the aftermath of the floods and provide relief to the affected people and the areas, the Joint Secretary (CIS), Union Ministry of Home Affairs Anuj Sharma assured all assistance as per the norms. He was accompanied by Ashok Kumar Singh Assistant Commissioner (Crop), H. Atheli Director (Admn), Rishika Sharan, Director CEA, PK Shakya, Chief Engineer, Bhim Prakash, Under Secretary (Skills) Union Ministry of Rural Development and Vineet Gupta, SE (Coordination) Ministry of Jal Shakti.
The State team of officers present on the occasion included Viswajeet Khanna, ACS(D), Sarvjit Singh Principal Secretary Water Resources, Jaspreet Talwar Secretary Water Supply and Sanitation, Hussan Lal Secretary PWD, Rahul Tewari Commissioner Roopnagar Division, Kumar Rahul, Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare, Arunpal Singh Special Secretary Rural Development and Panchayat Department, Secretary Power R. K. Kaushik, ADGP (Law & Order) Ishwar Singh, Director Local Government Karnesh Sharma, Deputy Commissioner SAS Nagar Girish Dayalan, Deputy Commissioner Rupnagar Sumit Jarangal and Additional Secretary Finance Surinder Kaur Waraich.
