Congress submits memorandum to the Governor, seeks speeding up of flood relief works,  proper compensation

• Govt should give compensation of Rs 40,000 per acre to flood affected farmers- Congress
• Govt should compensate for the damage caused to houses, shops and businesses- Congress
• Govt negligence, as much as the natural calamity, also contributed to flood situation- Hooda
• North Haryana drowned due to illegal mining, non-cleaning of drainage and closure of Dadupur Nalvi canal- Hooda
• Govt should arrange food, water for affected people, fodder for cattle- Udaibhan
• Strong possibility of spreading diseases in the coming days, admin should be alert from now- Udaibhan.

Chandigarh: Haryana Congress has demanded compensation at the rate of Rs 40,000 per acre for farmers and adequate compensate for the damage caused to houses, shops and businesses due to floods in the state, in a memorandum submitted to Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya here on Friday.

A delegation of Congress MLAs and senior leaders, led by former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda and State Congress President Chaudhary Udaibhan  had reached today to submit a memorandum to the Governor.

Addressing the press conference after submitting a memorandum to the Governor, Hooda said he had visited many flood-affected districts and stated that BJP-JJP government’s apathy and negligence played as big role a role, as excess rains in pushing north Haryana into a flood situation.

He said that till now the apathetic attitude of the administration has added to his suffering and said no help of any kind has been given to the victims so far. In a memorandum submitted to the Governor, he demanded that an immediate survey of the loss of crop property due to floods should be conducted and compensation should be given at the rate of Rs 40,000 per acre to provide adequate compensation to the affected people.

The Congress also sought immediate steps to rehabilitate those who have been displaced or their houses have been damaged. The party sought proper compensation after surveying the losses of traders and shopkeepers. Food items and fodder for their cattle should be distributed to the needy people.

The Congress noted that there is also a fear of spreading serious diseases due to flood water, so the administration should send sufficient quantity of medicine and team of doctors. Apart from this, immediate and long-term measures should be taken to prevent the recurrence of such disaster in future.

He said that the Opposition can not be a mute spectator as people of the state face trouble due to floods. “It is the responsibility of the Opposition to highlight the shortcomings of the government and the problems of the people. Congress will fulfill its responsibility,” he said.

“If the government will look into the demands raised by the Opposition, it will be in the interest of the public. Sarpanchs of many villages told me that the villagers had repeatedly demanded the government to get the drains cleaned, but for the last almost 2 years the government is ignoring this demand. Similarly, sewerage was not cleaned in the cities. The people of the entire area are suffering because of this,” he said.

Hooda said that ‘Dadupur-Nalvi’ was the biggest water recharge project in North Haryana, which would have also worked to protect Yamunanagar, Ambala to Kurukshetra from floods. “The BJP government, however, de-notified the project as soon as it came to power. By doing this, the government did injustice by snatching the scheme which proved to be the lifeline for the area during the disaster,” he said.

“Similarly, illegal mining, which is flourishing under the patronage of the government, also played an important role in creating flood situation. Illegal mining has been revealed many times in the reports from NGT to CAG. From Dadam to Yamuna, the mafia has done mining, with complete disregard for all the rules. The mining mafia even changed the direction of the rivers and this is the main reason why the water of the rivers started coming towards the residential areas,” he added.

“No steps were taken by the government to strengthen the embankments of the rivers, which was a major negligence. In such a situation, the question arises that what decisions were taken in the meeting of the Flood Control Board? Were those decisions implemented? If you talk to the people in the flood affected areas, the answer will be no,” the former Chief Minister said.

Hooda said the Congress has offered to extend every possible help to the government and administration in the relief work, in the memorandum submitted to the Governor. Along with this, an appeal has been made that all possible help of NDRF and Army should be taken to protect the lives and property of the people.

Haryana Congress president Chaudhary Udaibhan said he visited many areas from Karnal to Yamunanagar, to take stock of the situation on the ground and how people have been impacted by the floods. “Many villages have turned into islands and are extremely difficult to reach. The government and the administration should have acted in a sensitive manner. But on the contrary, the government is showing insensitivity. People said that they have been facing waterlogging for several days, but no representative of the government came to take care of him,” he stated.

“People do not have anything, from food, drinking water, to fodder for animals. From human life to the lives of cattle, everything is in danger. Farmers’ crops, borewells and motors installed in the fields have become useless. In such a situation, it is necessary that along with the compensation for the crops, the government should also give additional compensation to the farmers for borewell and motor. Shopkeepers and businessmen have also had to bear losses running into crores of Rupees. compensation should be announced by the government immediately for them,” he added.

Udaibhan said that the government has announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of 16 people who died due to floods, which is insufficient. The government should increase this amount to at least Rs 20 lakh.

The Congress thanked and appreciated the social workers engaged in providing food and drinking water to the people at the grassroots level, and the Sangat for running the langar. Udaibhan said leaders and workers of flood affected area have also been activated by the Congress to help the people. He said the entire party machine is engaged in providing all possible help at his level.

Responding to the statement made by the Chief Minister of Punjab on SYL, Hooda said that SYL is the right of Haryana. “Had Punjab given SYL water to Haryana, it would not have to face floods today. A large part of Haryana would have benefited from SYL water and Punjab would have been spared from flood-like calamity,” he pointed.

Speaking on the issue of agitating clerks demanding salary hike, Hooda said this decision was implemented in 2014 by the Congress government, but the BJP cancelled this decision as soon as it came to power. “The BJP, in its manifesto in 2014, and JJP manifesto of 2019 promised to give pay scale to the employees at par with Punjab. Today there is a coalition government of both the parties in the state, but both the parties are ignoring the demands of the employees, which is very unfortunate,” he pointed out.

Citing the CAG report, Hooda said the people of Haryana are being charged extra electricity rates. “According to the PPA (Power Purchase Agreement), the state government is buying power at a variable cost of Rs 4.90 to Rs 5.00 per unit. While the units of the state are producing electricity at the rate of variable cost ranging from Rs 3.25 to Rs 3.88 per unit,” he said.

“Given these facts, the question arises why the government is buying expensive electricity from outside, when Haryana itself is capable of producing electricity through the power plants set up by the Congress. On the other hand, the government electricity transmission cost is also higher than Punjab and Rajasthan,” he questioned.

“The present government has not established a single power plant in the state in 9 years, but what is worse and unfortunate is that this government is not utilizing the full capacity of the already established plants. The transmission cost of electricity in Haryana is 36 paise per kWh, which is higher than neighboring states. In Punjab it costs 22 paise and in Rajasthan it costs 29 paise. While the report of the CAG itself states that Haryana is financially one of the top 3 states in the country struggling with debt and deficit,” he said.

“The 12th Finance Commission report states that three states Kerala, Punjab and West Bengal are economically weak. Now this figure has reached 7 states. Among these, Haryana ranks second after Punjab and Kerala. The financial health of the state deteriorated during 2014-15 to 2022-23as the growth of state liabilities was 18 percent, while the growth of state GDP at current prices was 14 percent. These are signs of the state sinking into debt. The situation was opposite during 2004-05 to 2013-14. The liability growth to GDP was 14 per cent and the growth rate was 18 per cent,” he stated.

“To make matters worse, Haryana is at the lowest position among other states in fully spending the capital expenditure received from the Center. The Haryana government could not spend even half of the allocation for building infrastructure, and Haryana’s debt kept on increasing. Haryana has joined the list of stressed states in the country,” he stated.

Commenting on the condition of Haryana Roadways, Hooda said the average number of buses in the roadways was 4210 in 2015-16, which has come down to 3118 in 2019-20.

Referring to the Crop Insurance Scheme, Hooda said the figures between 2016 and 2021 are shocking. “Only 12 percent of the total amount of insurance premium has been received by the farmers as compensation. While 88 percent of the amount has gone to the profits of the companies,” he added.