Former Union minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday asked the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to call a special session of the Punjab Assembly to discuss the grave flood menace in Punjab.
“A special session of the Assembly could be convened to interfere in the religious affairs of the Sikhs in an attempt to grab control of Sikh shrines through the backdoor. Does the CM dare do such a thing with regard to religious affairs of any other community,” she said, while speaking to reporters after visiting flood affected areas in the Malwa belt.
Badal said the CM has no time from flying to promote his non-Punjabi boss Arvind Kejriwal in far off places like Karnataka etc and that too at the expense of the already suffering Punjabi taxpayers’ money.
The Akali leader said the flood tragedy in Punjab is “Bhagwant made, and not Bhagwan made.”
“Hundreds of villages and thousands of acres of land with crops is under water while you (Mann) are flying in the heavens far away from the beleaguered whose only sin is that they entrusted their destiny in your hands. It is time you put a stop to your publicity jamboree and got down to brass-tacks to save the people reeling under flood fury,” she said.
The SAD leader said she was “deeply pained” to see that the Chief Minister is behaving so heartlessly that when his state is suffering from floods, people are losing lives, livestock is dying, he criss-crossing the skies to promote Kejriwal in Karnataka.”
Badal said Mann made tall talk about release compensation even before Girdawari but has not shown his face since then, despite over 35 deaths and hundreds of cattle loss. No ex-gratia has even been announced, leave aside providing it.
”People in villages are losing lives, crops, cattle and property and in the absence of any help from the government, side tension among them is escalating. She said that villagers were pooling their resources on their own to save their villages from water gushing in as the administration is totally absent,” she added.
The Lok Sabha member from Bathinda said it was extremely unfortunate that despite her warnings, the administration had not bothered to take effective steps.