Govt committed to rescuing flood-affected people, regularly monitoring situation: Punjab CM

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday, July 20, said the government is committed to bailing out people in flood-affected districts and said he's regularly monitoring the situation from Pathankot to Sardulgarh.

The Chief Minister said the government is duty bound to ensure relief to the people and no stone will be left unturned for this noble cause.

Mann said the ministers, higher officials and other administrative machinery of the government is already in the field to help the people. He said massive relief and rescue operations are already going on in the flood-torn districts to ensure that people do not face any sort of problem.

Mann also lauded the NGOs and other social organisations who are serving the people zealously in this hour of grave crisis. The Chief Minister said priority is being given to carry rescue and relief work in the badly affected areas.

The Chief Minister said the state government will compensate people for loss of every single penny, adding he has already ordered a special "girdwari" to ascertain the loss of crops, houses and others due to heavy rainfall in the state. Mann assured the people the government is committed to safeguarding their interests against nature's fury.

In a swathe of heavy rainfall that enveloped much of the state for the past few days, has accounted for a death toll of 38. After a torrent of heavy rainfall in Patiala on Tuesday, two brothers died as the roof of their rented house, in Ragho Majra area, collapsed upon them. Another brother was injured, alongside two others.

On the other hand, two people drowned in the now swollen Buddha Dariya stream in the district of Ludhiana on Wednesday. According to Inspector Davinder Singh, SHO of the Meharban police station, a group of six had gone to take a bath in the stream, out of which two of them were swept away.

On Wednesday, people living near Ujh and Ravi rivers in Pathankot and Gurdaspur were shifted to safer places after 2.6 lakh cusecs of water were released in the Ujh.