Opposition parties attack CM Mann for his Tamil Nadu visit as Punjab districts reel from floods

Opposition parties in Punjab on Tuesday lashed out at Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for visiting Tamil Nadu at a time when his state was grappling with floods and called it an ''unforgivable abandonment'' of the affected people.

Mann was in Chennai on Tuesday where he was invited as the chief guest by the Tamil Nadu government to mark the expansion of the Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme.

The Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP attacked Mann, alleging he left Punjab to its own fate while going for a ''joyride'' to the southern state and calling it an ''absolute dereliction of duty''.

The flood situation has turned grim in Punjab after the water levels in the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi rivers and seasonal rivulets rose following heavy rains in their catchment areas in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, inundating large swathes of farmland and villages along these rivers.

The release of surplus water from the Pong, Bhakra and Ranjit Sagar dams has also compounded the woes of villages in several districts of Punjab, as they fear massive crop damage.

The worst-affected villages are in Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Fazilka, Kapurthala, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Hoshiarpur districts.

Senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa dubbed Mann's Tamil Nadu visit an ''unforgivable abandonment'' of the flood-ravaged people of Punjab.

Condemning Mann for his ''shocking absence'' from the state, Bajwa said, ''While large swathes of Punjab remain submerged under floodwaters, the Chief Minister has chosen to go on a joyride to Tamil Nadu.'' ''What kind of leader leaves his people to fend for themselves during a humanitarian crisis? This is not just negligence. It is an absolute dereliction of duty and criminal irresponsibility,'' Bajwa said in a statement.

''Massive destruction across Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Kapurthala, Ferozepur, Fazilka, and parts of Hoshiarpur, where rising waters from the Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej rivers have engulfed entire villages, wiped out standing crops, flooded homes, and forced hundreds to evacuate with barely any government assistance in sight,'' he said.

''Where is the so-called 'pro-people' Aam Aadmi Party administration now? People have been left to plug breaches with their bare hands, organise their own rescue operations, and arrange food and relief, all the while the chief minister parades around for photo-ops in another state. Is this the 'new politics' Mann and his Delhi bosses promised the people of Punjab,'' Bajwa asked.

BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh also slammed the Mann government, alleging ''alarming failure'' to come up with rescue operations in flood-hit areas.

''Mann has been undertaking cosmetic tours without understanding the ground realities, due to which thousands of families are suffering,'' he alleged.

He noted that Mann's announcement of a special 'girdawari' (loss assessment) has become an annual statement with little improvement in payout speed or transparency.

Earlier too, farmers received delayed and inadequate compensation, he claimed.

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal also lambasted Mann, alleging he is ''missing'' from the state when the state was facing floods.

''Punjab is drowning in floods -- homes have been ruined, crops destroyed, livestock has been lost and lives shattered. Inspite of all this, the CM is missing from the State. He is vacationing in Chennai with his family,'' alleged Badal on X.

In a statement, Punjab BJP working president Ashwani Sharma said, ''Instead of cancelling his programmes and rushing to flood-hit villages to help the needy, Mann abandoned Punjabis in crisis. This exposes his complete lack of empathy or concern.'' Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring too criticised Mann and said given the state of emergency caused in Punjab due to unprecedented floods, it is incumbent upon the CM to stay put to personally monitor the situation.

''Unfortunately, the chief minister chose to be present in Tamil Nadu for the launch of a breakfast scheme for school children there'', he said, while observing, ''the Punjab CM should have cancelled all engagements and focused on flood control and relief measures in his own state''.

He said the AAP government has ''completely failed'' the people of Punjab as no preparations were made in anticipation of heavy rains.

''Floods have started causing unimaginable devastation across Punjab, particularly in the areas around the banks of Sutlej and Beas'', he said, adding, ''while this is certainly not the time for politics, that does not mean the government and the administration it runs is not held accountable''.

He pointed out that there was already a prediction of ''more than normal'' monsoon rains. The government and the bureaucracy ''failed'' to take note and have literally been caught unawares, he said, while hoping, ''at least now, the government wakes up from the slumber and takes relief measures''.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)