"PM himself visited, assessed needs": SP Singh Baghel defends Centre's Rs 1600 Cr package for flood-hit Punjab

Moga (Punjab) [India], September 16 (ANI): Union Minister SP Singh Baghel defended the Rs 1,600 crore relief package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for flood-hit Punjab, saying the Centre had also directed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the state to release Rs 12,000 crore.
Speaking to ANI during his visit to Moga district on Monday, Baghel said that the Prime Minister had personally visited affected areas and assessed the requirements for compensation.
He said, "In this hour of grief in Punjab, the Prime Minister himself visited a few places, assessed compensation needs, identified problems, spoke to people and directed the AAP government to release a package of Rs 12,000 crore. A token amount of Rs 1,600 crore was also allocated, taking the total relief package for relief, rehabilitation, medical, food, animal and health in Punjab to Rs 13,600 crore."
Further, he added that the Chief Ministers of the BJP-ruled States have contributed Rs 5 crore each to the relief fund, and the party is distributing essential items in a door-to-door campaign.
"BJP-ruled chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Haryana, Delhi and Goa have contributed Rs 5 crore each to the relief fund and sent relief material in trucks. A committee has been formed by BJP workers, which will go door-to-door and distribute useful items of daily life," he said.
Baghel criticised previous state governments for not implementing the Centre's crop insurance scheme, saying this would have benefited farmers living along riverbanks.
"If the previous governments had implemented the Central government's crop insurance scheme here, farmers living on the river banks would have got crop insurance," SP Singh Baghel told ANI.
Baghel was on a visit to the flood-hit Moga district of Punjab.
Earlier, Prime Minister Modi had conducted an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas in Punjab before announcing the Rs 1,600 crore relief package, in addition to the Rs 12,000 crore directed to the state.
The announcement has triggered a political row in Punjab, with leaders of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) calling the allocation inadequate.
AAP leader Manish Sisodia criticised PM Modi and alleged that this amount is inadequate, particularly when considering that prominent industrialists such as Adani and Ambani have benefitted from debt waivers totalling Rs 10 crores.
"The land of Punjab has always filled the nation's stomach, guarded its borders, and supported India in every hour of crisis. Today, the same Punjab is drowning in floods. Farmers are ruined, homes are submerged, labourers have lost their livelihoods, but the Modi government is merely offering them "consolation" by giving just Rs 1600 crore. And when it comes to industrialist friends like Adani-Ambani, the same government waives off a debt of Rs 10 lakh crore," Sisodia posted on X.
He further added, "Modi ji, is there no value to the suffering of Punjabis? This is nothing but a direct insult to the toiling land of Punjab." (ANI)