Rahul Gandhi visits flood-hit areas in Amritsar, Gurdaspur

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited the flood-hit areas in Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts of Punjab on Monday and interacted with those affected by nature's fury.

He was accompanied by Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa, Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and other party leaders.

After arriving in Amritsar, he headed to Ghonewal village in Amritsar's Ajnala and met the flood-hit people to enquire about the damage.

Ghonewal village was among several areas in Ajnala which was badly hit by floodwaters.

Gandhi also visited the houses which were damaged by the recent floods and sat among some flood-affected people and interacted with them.

After visiting Ghonewal village, Gandhi paid obeisance at the historic gurdwara Baba Budha Sahib in Ramdas area of Amritsar. He took part in an 'ardas' (prayer) at the gurdwara.

Gandhi was given a 'siropa' (a robe of honour) at the gurdwara. Former chief minister of Chhattisgarh and the party's Punjab in-charge Bhupesh Baghel and former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi were also present.

Gandhi, who is the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, later visited flood-affected Gurchak village in Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district. MP Sukhjinder Randhawa showed Gandhi agricultural fields which were affected by floodwaters.

The Congress in a post on X stated that Gandhi met the affected families and took stock of the relief work.

''The devastating floods in Punjab have destroyed the lives of thousands of people. There has been huge loss of life and property in the state, people are forced to live in relief camps. The situation is extremely dire. In such a difficult time, every Congress worker is with Punjab. We appeal to everyone to help the flood affected families in every possible way,'' the post said in Hindi.

Congress MLA Pargat Singh said in Amritsar that Gandhi is a leader who understands the pain of Punjab very well.

Congress leader Navjot Kaur Sidhu, while speaking to reporters in Amritsar, said Gandhi's visit was a big motivation. ''For us, Rahul Gandhi is the biggest leader. He instructed us to keep doing 'sewa','' she said.

Punjab faced one of its worst flood disasters in decades. The floods were a result of swollen Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi rivers along with seasonal rivulets caused by heavy rainfall in their catchment areas in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Besides, heavy rains in Punjab had also intensified the flooding situation.

The death toll because of the floods presently stands at 56 while crops on 1.98 lakh hectares were damaged.

The worst-affected districts in the floods were Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Pathankot, Hoshiarpur, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Tarn Taran.

On September 9, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reviewed the flood situation and damage in Punjab after conducting an aerial survey of the flood-ravaged areas during his visit.

He had announced a financial assistance of Rs 1,600 crore for the flood-hit state in addition to the Rs 12,000 crore already in the state's kitty.

Earlier, Union Ministers including Shivraj Singh Chouhan, L Murugan and B L Verma visited the flood-affected areas to take stock of the situation.

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