Thirty-eight persons lost their lives while two others are missing and 15 were injured due to floods in Punjab.
Currently, 19 districts are affected by floods, including Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Faridkot, Hoshiarpur, Rupnagar, Kapurthala, Patiala, Moga, Ludhiana, SAS Nagar, Jalandhar, Sangrur, SBS Nagar, Fazilka, Gurdaspur, Mansa, Bathinda and Pathankot.
Advertisement
As part of relief operation, 26,280 persons have been evacuated to safety. A spokesperson informed that as many as 1,432 villages have been affected by the flood till 18 July. A total of 155 relief camps are running in the state where 3,828 people are staying.
Special flood relief camps are being organised in the affected districts to provide treatment to the victims, food supply, fodder and silage to the needy animals.
According to a spokesperson, 458 Rapid Response Teams (RRT) have been working in flood affected areas. The Health Department has set up 244 medical camps in the affected areas and the total number of OPDs is 8531.
He said dry food packets are being continuously distributed in the flood affected areas. While 21,971 food packets have been distributed in Rupnagar, the number for the same for Patiala is 64,000, SAS Nagar4,000, SBS Nagar 5,700 in and for Fatehgarh Sahib 2,200.
Meanwhile, to provide relief to the farmers affected by floods, the Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department has set up a control-room to provide paddy saplings at free of cost to farmers, whose crop has been damaged by the floods in the state.
The affected farmers can dial “77106-65725” from 8am to 9.30 pm to register their demand for free paddy saplings.
The state government, assuring the famers that it is standing by them, asked them not to worry. Gurmeet Singh Khudian said that the state has already been working on a strategy to fulfill the demand of paddy saplings. It is committed to providing paddy saplings where replantation is required due to floods.