Noida, Aug 23 (PTI) BJP's Himachal Pradesh in-charge Avinash Rai Khanna on Wednesday said a major effort is required to rebuild the state after the recent natural disasters and asserted that the Congress-led government should not politicise the issue.

The BJP leader also demanded the Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led government should come out with a policy to minimise the loss of lives and properties in the event of natural disasters.

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"The state government needs to come out with a good policy so that loss of lives and properties due to such natural calamities is minimised. The biggest responsibility lies with the state government. First of all, they should compensate the people for the loss incurred. There should be efforts to prevent loss of lives, damage to properties. The tragedy is huge and everyone should make efforts in rebuilding the state,” Khanna told PTI during a private visit here.

“The state's Congress government should not politicise the issue. Often a demand comes that this disaster should be declared as a 'national calamity'. But there's a parameter for declaring any tragedy as a 'national calamity'. It has been declared as state calamity and our people, including LoP (Leader of Opposition) Jairam Thakur, our state president, MLAs and leaders are working in the state to extend whatever relief is possible,” he added.

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Khanna said the priority right now is also rebuilding road connectivity since this is the season for apple.

"We are also making efforts for that. A lot of farmers there grow apples and the intention is to prevent damage to their produce,” he added.

Khanna said the BJP, which is now in opposition in Himachal Pradesh, responded immediately to the calamity, which had a devastating effect on life and property in the state.

He said his party MLAs in the state immediately donated their one months' salary for relief while Prime Minister Narendra Modi also provided help and BJP national president JP Nadda also visited the state to oversee relief operations.

Nadda assured all possible help from the Centre, the former Rajya Sabha MP noted.

Khanna also said a large part of the adjoining state of Punjab is also facing difficulties in the wake of the natural disaster in north India.

"Punjab is an agriculture-driven state. When the floods occurred, the rivers also brought with it a lot of sand which now remains accumulated in farmlands. The standing crop in farms was destroyed while the farms are not ready for future farming because of the sand,” the BJP leader said.

“I have written a letter to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and met with Governor Banwarilal Purohit. I have also written to Punjab government's Chief Secretary (Anurag Verma) that sand should be immediately removed from the farms or farmers be allowed to remove the sand on their own and the government should provide compensation for it to them,” he added.

Citing the example of his own usage of the MPLAD funds as the Rajya Sabha MP from 2010 to 2016, Khanna called on the legislators to help in rebuilding the affected regions in the two states.

"I had used my MPLAD funds to develop a bus stand in a panchayat area in Nurpur Bedi near Ropar. The bus stand was built for Rs 26 lakh and its primary aim was to provide relief to local people. However, this bus stand is now leased out on an annual basis and generates a tax of Rs 10 lakh every year. It has become profitable,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Congress demanded that the Centre announce a Rs 10,000 crore special package for Himachal Pradesh and declare the devastation there due to rains as a 'national disaster'.

Congress' Himachal Pradesh in-charge Rajeev Shukla on Wednesday urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to allow all the MPs, in both Houses of Parliament, to provide relief to the hill state out of the MP Local Area Development Fund.

Terming the crisis in Himachal Pradesh as unprecedented, the Congress leader said the hill state is not getting the national attention required as it has never suffered so much devastation in its history.

So far, 330 people have died and 35 are missing while 12,000 houses have been destroyed, Shukla said in Delhi.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)