Haryana Congress on Friday demanded compensation at the rate of Rs 40,000 per acre for farmers and adequate financial aid for the damage caused to houses, shops and businesses due to floods in the state in a memorandum submitted to Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya.
After leading a delegation of Congress legislators and senior leaders to submit a memorandum to the Governor, former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the state government’s negligence played as big a role as excess rains in pushing north Haryana into a flood situation.
Addressing the press conference, Hooda said the Congress has demanded immediate survey of the loss of crop property due to floods should be conducted and compensation should be given at the rate of Rs 40,000 per acre to provide adequate compensation to the affected people.
The Congress also sought immediate steps to rehabilitate those who have been displaced or their houses have been damaged. The party sought proper compensation after surveying the losses of traders and shopkeepers. Food items and fodder for their cattle should be distributed to the needy people.
The Congress said there is also a fear of spreading serious diseases due to flood water, so the administration should send a sufficient quantity of medicine and a team of doctors. Apart from this, immediate and long-term measures should be taken to prevent the recurrence of such disasters in future.
Hooda said the Opposition can not be a mute spectator as people of the state face trouble due to floods. “It is the responsibility of the Opposition to highlight the shortcomings of the government and the problems of the people. Congress will fulfill its responsibility,” he said.
“If the government will look into the demands raised by the Opposition, it will be in the interest of the public. Sarpanchs of many villages told me that the villagers had repeatedly demanded the government to get the drains cleaned, but for the last almost two years the government is ignoring this demand. Similarly, sewerage was not cleaned in the cities. The people of the entire area are suffering because of this,” he said.
Hooda said that ‘Dadupur-Nalvi’ was the biggest water recharge project in North Haryana, which would have also worked to protect Yamunanagar, Ambala to Kurukshetra from floods. “The BJP government, however, de-notified the project as soon as it came to power. By doing this, the government did injustice by snatching the scheme which proved to be the lifeline for the area during the disaster,” he said.
The former CM said illegal mining, which is flourishing under the patronage of the government, also played an important role in creating flood situations.
“From Dadam to Yamuna, the mafia has done mining, with complete disregard for all the rules. The mining mafia even changed the direction of the rivers and this is the main reason why the water of the rivers started coming towards the residential areas,” he added.
“No steps were taken by the government to strengthen the embankments of the rivers, which was a major negligence. In such a situation, the question arises that what decisions were taken in the meeting of the Flood Control Board? Were those decisions implemented? If you talk to the people in the flood affected areas, the answer will be no,” Hooda said.