During the special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha convened today on the issue of floods, MLA from Ajanala constituency and former Punjab Cabinet Minister S. Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal narrated the tragic story of devastation caused by the floods in deeply emotional words.
He said that he was not present in the House merely as a legislator, but as a direct witness to the sufferings of the people who have been battered since August 26 till September 24 by the poisonous, snake-like sting of the Ravi river floods.He stressed that in the onslaught of the Ravi waters, flourishing paddy fields were drowned under 6–7 feet of water in the blink of an eye.
With cloudbursts in the hills, the rushing water brought concrete debris, red soil, silt and sand, filling the farmlands of 30–40 villages such as Ghohnewala, Machhiwala, Nisoke, Singhoke, Jatta Pachhia, Roodewal, Malikpur and others. He demanded that a high-level Vidhan Sabha committee be formed to thoroughly assess the situation of the farmlands lying across the barbed wire along the border.
Sharing Dhaliwal’s words with the media, his advisor S. Prashotam said that Dhaliwal reminded that since the devastating floods of 1988, thousands of acres of fertile land in Ajanala region have been lost to the Ravi river. Yet till date, the central government has remained silent and has not provided compensation of ₹20 lakh per acre for these lands.
He stressed that it is the duty of the central government—not the states—to strengthen river embankments and provide compensation for land swallowed by rivers.Dhaliwal also attacked Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa, saying that while India has conducted operations such as “Operation Sindhoor” to foil Pakistan’s anti-India conspiracies, it is the brave border residents of his constituency who risk their lives during wars as well as the Ravi floods.
These people abandoned their homes, belongings, and cattle, escaping the roaring floodwaters with nothing but their lives. Yet, despite their immense suffering, Bajwa did not raise even a single voice of sympathy in the House, while the entire Punjab trembled on hearing of the tragedy.
He further said that Bajwa even went so far as to falsely accuse his personal assistant, Mukhtar Singh (a Dalit farmer owning only 1 kanal of land), of breaking a canal during the floods. In reality, the damage to the canal was the result of village factionalism. Dhaliwal personally intervened and ensured that the canal was repaired.
Continuing his sharp political criticism, Dhaliwal said that Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party’s national leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, visited the flood-affected village Ghohnewala 20 days after the disaster and left empty-handed, just like Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan who had come 3–4 days after the floods and returned without offering any help.
On the other hand, after his appeals in the Vidhan Sabha and through the media, Speaker S. Kultar Singh Sandhwan, Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney, ministers, MLAs, social workers, religious institutions, and voluntary service groups reached the affected areas with truckloads and tractor-trailers full of relief material.
They brought not just food, clothing, and shelter, but also warmth from their hearts.Dhaliwal concluded by affirming that he would continue to stand by the people of his constituency, serving them until they are rehabilitated and their farmlands are restored for cultivation.