Punjab floods are man made disaster, major losses could have averted with timely action: Baghel

Ferozepur, September 6, 2025: Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and the Congress General Secretary and Punjab in-charge Bhupesh Bhagel today said that the ongoing floods were a man-made disaster that led to large scale devastation in major parts of the state adding timely action could have averted major losses.

Accompanied by senior party leaders including the PPCC President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, the CLP leader Partap Singh Bajwa, former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and others, Bhagel visited several areas affected by floods and interacted with people there.

Baghel said Punjab has been badly devastated by floods and regretted the delay on part of the centre government to provide interim relief for the flood hit people. Baghel  reiterated his party’s demand for a comprehensive and substantial flood relief package for the state and said that this was no time to play politics on floods.

"At the same time the state government and the administration cannot escape the responsibility for not taking preventive and precautionary measures in advance. There has been complete negligence on part of the state government and the administration under it to visualize the situation in view of the forecast of an above normal monsoon this year", said Baghel adding that the government woke up to the problem quite late when everything had literally been washed away.

The senior Congress leader regretted that both the state and the central governments still seem to be indifferent towards the plight of the flood-hit people in Punjab. "While the state administration is as good as collapsed, the central government has also been very insensitive and indifferent", said Baghel

He questioned the unusual delay in providing an immediate relief package for the flood-hit people. "While the comprehensive package may take time, the central government should have provided interim relief for the flood victims. I don't understand why the central government was delaying the relief  when it knew it had to provide the same", said Baghel.

Bhagel along with other Congress leaders assessed the flood situation and review relief efforts by party workers at flood affected villages Gatta Badshah (Zira), Nihal Lavera (Ferozepur), Naubram Sher Singh (Guruharsahai), Rukne Wala and Dutti Wala Bandh (Zira).

On this occasion, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Rana Gurjeet Singh, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Sukhminder Singh Danny, Raj Kumar Verka, Ramanjit Singh Sikki, Harpartap Singh Ajnala, Navtej Cheema, Kulbir Zira, Sunil Dutti, Bhagwantpal Singh Sachar, Parminder Singh Pinky, Santokh Singh Bhalaipur and others Congress leaders were also present.