Punjab MLA and former Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal today visited flood-affected villages in the Ajnala area, including Gujhapir, Dyal Bhatti, Sammowal, and Langomahal, to assess the damage caused to crops and other property due to heavy rainfall and flooding.
He clarified that the Aam Aadmi Party government, led by Chief Minister Sardar Bhagwant Singh Mann, is committed to providing compensation to the flood-affected farmers and laborers.During a conversation afterward, MLA and former Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal termed the recent visit of Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, to flood-ravaged Punjab – nearly two months after the disaster – as merely a symbolic (fake) political formality. He also expressed dissatisfaction with Rahul Gandhi’s decision to raise the issue of the Modi government’s announcement of a ₹1600 crore relief package in Parliament, calling it inadequate for Punjab’s needs.
S. Dhaliwal said that if Congress national leader Rahul Gandhi is truly concerned from the heart about the plight of Punjab’s flood victims, he should also demand the return of administrative control of the *Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB)* to Punjab. This control was taken away from Punjab and handed over to the central government by his grandmother, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, both directly and indirectly.
Dhaliwal added that Rahul Gandhi should bring a resolution in Parliament to compel the Modi-led central government to make decisions on these serious issues. He should also push to revoke the construction award for the *Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal*, which was issued by Indira Gandhi in 1982 after the Punjab Congress government withdrew the ongoing river water case from the Supreme Court – a move that essentially robbed Punjab of its river waters. Doing so would be a true act of atonement for the anti-Punjab decisions made by his grandmother, Mrs. Indira Gandhi.
Dhaliwal further said that if Rahul Gandhi were genuinely compassionate toward the pain of Punjab’s flood victims, he could have arranged for ₹2 crore each from the MP Local Area Development Funds (MPLAD) of Congress’s approximately 150 MPs in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, which would amount to ₹300 crore. As that did not happen, Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Punjab ultimately proved fruitless and without any real aid for the flood-affected people.