Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today sought the personal intervention of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh for fixing the amount of compensation for flood ravaged regions of the state at the rate of Rs 20000 per acre.
Interacting with the media persons after visiting the two flood affected villages of Sri Muktsar Sahib here today, the Chief Minister said that he had written a letter to Dr. Manmohan Singh for revising the criteria of fixing the relief amount in regions inflicted with any natural disaster so that the victims of these tragedies could be duly compensated. Mr. Badal said that he would soon personally meet the Prime Minister to immediately take a call on this. He said that the problems faced by the victims of these natural tragedies could be understood only after visiting the areas due to which he had spent four days in the flood devastated regions, so as to acquaint himself about all the hardships faced by the people.
The Chief Minister said that the farmers of these regions were the most affected as their crops, which were ready for harvest, have been either washed away or destroyed in the floods, so special attention should be paid to give solace to them. Mr. Badal said that he would apprise the Prime Minister about the ground realities and urge him to help the peasantry of the state by raising the amount of compensation, which was too meager and inadequate to bail the farmers in this hour of crisis. He said that it was the high time that the Government of India (GoI) should lend a helping hand to the hard working and resilient farmers of the state who had played a vanguard role in making the country self reliant in food production and were now feeling disenchanted with centre’s blatant neglect to their woes.
Earlier during his address in village Fatehpur Mannia and Tappa, the Chief Minister said that in order to avert any such tragedy in the future a complete overhaul of the Drainage system of the state was on cards. Mr. Badal said that he had asked the Drainage department to prepare a ‘master plan’ of the all the flood affected regions before the next monsoon season so that havoc due the rain water could be avoided in future. He said that the officers of the drainage department have been asked to minutely examine the need for constructing new drains and link drains besides the requirement for widening and strengthening of the existing drains so as to save the people from the fury of floods.
The Chief Minister further said that the process of reconstructing the damaged infra structure in the flood affected regions of the state would also be initiated soon for which the necessary directions have been passed to the respective district administrations. He said that efforts for relief and reconstruction of the flood victims were also going on in full swing and teams of Health and Animal Husbandry department have been pressed into service to provide quality medical facilities to the human beings and Cattle respectively.