19 dead, over 35 villages of Samana and Shutrana of Patiala district continue to be affected by the overflowing Ghaggar

19 dead, over 35 villages of Samana and Shutrana of Patiala district continue to be affected by the overflowing Ghaggar

Chandigarh: First it was Himachal Pradesh, now it’s Punjab. The damage due to the torrential rain is unimaginable. Pictures and videos from all over the state show a scary scene. The loss of life and property brought by the monsoon fury has caused immense pain and most of the towns in Punjab are submerged in water. The losses have run into thousands of crores.

According to official data, 19 people have died in rain-related incidents in Punjab. Over 22,000 people have been moved to safety from waterlogged localities in various flood-hit districts.

In spite of very little monsoon rain having been witnessed in Punjab, only three of the total 27 breaches across the state have been plugged so far. Most of the breaches are on the embankments of the Ghaggar in Sangrur and Patiala districts. The lack of skilled manpower has made the operations difficult, claimed an Irrigation Department officer. “While the work on repairing the breaches is mostly carried out during daytime, it usually gets undone at night by strong water currents,” he said.

Many people across the state are saying that the Punjab Government should “get serious” in helping the people as the ruling regime leaders were only busy with photoshoots in the flood-affected areas, hinting at CM Bhagwant Mann who on Friday toured the flood-hit areas of Sangrur district.

“Where is the government, they are only coming to click photos for social media. Can’t they see the situation is worsening, we will never recover from it,” says Ravjit Brar.

Local in boats are seen distributing food and others things to residents over the past several days after floodwaters inundated dozens of villages.

Over 35 villages of Samana and Shutrana of Patiala district continue to be affected by the overflowing Ghaggar. Farmers are facing losses as water has flooded their fields and houses.

Officials of the Drainage Department said the Tangri and Mankanda rivers were in spate. These are tributaries of the Ghaggar. Villages around Devigarh are the most affected due to flooding.

Jasveer Singh, a resident of Phullad village, said, “We know it’s tough to reach the spot where embankment has been breached at Phullad but the authorities should not surrender. The breach will keep on widening and create serious problems in coming days.”

Executive Engineer Gursharan Virk said accessibility to Phullad breach was very tough. “The plugging work has been going on at Makraud Sahib and Banarasi villages. There is no accessibility to the breach site at Phullad village. We need to devise a new strategy before restarting the work,” said Virk.