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New Delhi
Rajya Sabha MP SS Dhindsa on Tuesday urged the Centre and state government to compensate residents who were affected by floods due to the breach along the Ghaggar river.
The Shiromani Akali Dal MP alleged the Punjab government has not provided relief to the people of the flood-affected area, even after s Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh had made an aerial survey.
Dhindsa demanded assessment of the damage by a team from the Centre.
Raising the issue in the Upper House during “Zero Hour”, he said the flood was due to a breach in Ghaggar’s bank in Moonak sub- division of Sangrur district. The affected villages were inundated and marooned for five days. Heavy damage has been caused to the people, Dhindsa said.
He also alleged that the breach could have been avoided, had a NABARD-funded project to channelize the river been completed.
The project, worth Rs 137 crore, was to be prepared by a committee headed by the chairperson of the Central Water Commission. Three states, including Punjab and Haryana, had representation on it.
The committee sanctioned the first phase of the project, for which then CM Prakash Singh Badal had laid the foundation stone in 2008. The work in the first phase was completed.
But the second phase has not been sanctioned for the past one decade on account of which the “lining” for the channelization of the river could not be put in place, said Dhindsa.
Moonak was one such place where the lining work had to be undertaken in the second phase, he said.
Speaking to The Tribune, Dhindsa said that the first phase of the project to channelize the river cost Rs 40 crore.
He said the channelization consisted of deepening the bed of the river and erecting higher embankments along the river bank to prevent the overflow of water during the monsoons.
