India News | Haryana Govt Must Work on War Footing to Help Flood-affected People: Hooda

Kurukshetra, Jul 12 (PTI) Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday visited some flood-hit areas here in Haryana and said the government must work on war footing to help those affected.

He was accompanied by several Congress leaders including Ashok Arora, Kuldeep Sharma, Jai Prakash and Karan Singh Dalal.

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The former chief minister also asked the Haryana government to work to drain out flood waters from residential colonies and villages.

The state government should give proper compensation for the loss suffered by farmers, shopkeepers and the public, he said while talking to reporters at the Circuit House here.

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Targeting the BJP-JJP government in the state, the leader of opposition in the assembly described it as a "non-performing government" and said if it had taken precautionary measures in time, people could have been saved from this situation.

However, he said he hoped that it will rise to the occasion and try to restore electricity and other civil amenities in the flood affected areas as soon as possible.

"The government neither called a meeting of the Flood Control Board, nor got storm water outlets, sewerage and drains cleaned before the rainy season. If the government had fulfilled its responsibility in time, farmers' crops, shopkeepers' shops and people's houses could have been saved from submerging to a large extent," said Hooda, who also visited some flood-hit areas of Ambala.

"The government should now not show any negligence or laxity. They should mobilise and deploy whatever resources...for draining out rain water. Along with this, compensation should be announced for the people after assessing the damage caused by the flood," he said.

He said the state government should take forward relief work with the help of the Centre, the National Disaster Response Force and the army.

Hooda recalled that in 1995-96 also the state had faced floods.

"Even at that time, compensation was given by the government to help people recover from the loss caused due to the floods. This time too thousands of acres of farmers' crops have been destroyed due to floods, houses of many people have collapsed or cracks have appeared in them, shopkeepers' shops have also been submerged. They should be given proper compensation," the Congress leader said.

(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)