Chandigarh, Jan 8 BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh on Thursday alleged that another “blatant lie” of the Bhagwant Mann government to mislead the people of Punjab has been exposed, claiming that the much-hyped Rs 20,000 crore flood relief package has officially shrunk to just Rs 11,855 crore in the final damage assessment submitted by the state government itself.
In a statement, Chugh said the Aam Aadmi Party-led government had attempted to fabricate allegations against the Centre, but was once again forced to retract its claims. He alleged that the Kejriwal–Bhagwant Mann leadership had sought to mislead the public despite what he described as consistent support from the Modi government during times of crisis.
Chugh further alleged that to push what he termed a propaganda narrative, the Punjab government convened a special session of the Assembly, which he claimed resulted in a waste of taxpayers’ money. He said the special session was not called to strengthen flood relief mechanisms or support affected people, but was instead used to spread confusion, misinformation and baseless accusations against the Central government.
Describing the floods as a “Mann-made disaster”, Chugh alleged gross administrative failure by the state government. He claimed that the first flood preparedness meeting was convened only on June 5, 2025, barely 17 days before the onset of the monsoon, making it impossible to clean the 2,800-km-long Dhussi embankments and drainage channels across the state in time.
He further alleged that at the Madhopur headworks, 24 out of 28 gates were found defective, while the Harike headworks had not been desilted for years, resulting in large-scale embankment breaches and flooding across hundreds of villages.
Chugh said the situation was aggravated by what he termed blatant mismanagement on the ground. He alleged that rampant illegal mining weakened riverbanks, while sudden and delayed releases of water from the Ranjit Sagar Dam intensified flooding in Pathankot, Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts.
Claiming lapses in disaster response, Chugh said documents revealed that only 15 motorboats were available across three severely affected districts, forcing residents to fend for themselves during the floods.
He further alleged that while large parts of Punjab were inundated, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was away attending events in Tamil Nadu, and that state ministers were more focused on publicity than on relief operations. He also criticised Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, accusing them of indulging in politics instead of standing with flood-hit residents.
Chugh said that from the outset, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ensured central intervention, and several Union Ministers were deputed to Punjab and other flood-affected states to assess the situation on the ground and coordinate relief measures.
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