Chandigarh: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (September 9) announced a relief package of Rs 1,600 crore for flood-hit Punjab after conducting an aerial survey of affected districts and reviewing the situation in a meeting in Gurdaspur.

Modi also announced the advance release of money from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), ex gratia compensation to victims' families, the rebuilding of damaged homes under the PM Awas Yojana, and support for farmers, livestock as well as children orphaned in the disaster.

However, his announcement quickly snowballed into a political controversy.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab, which had demanded a Rs 20,000 crore relief package from the BJP-led Union government, dismissed the announcement as “rubbish” and inadequate given the scale of devastation in the state.

AAP spokesperson Neel Garg told The Wire that Punjab had high hopes from Modi but that he failed to deliver justice.

Pointing to the extent of destruction that floods over the last couple of weeks have wreaked in Punjab – including leaving lakhs of acres of cropland inundated, hundreds of villages affected, lakhs of livestock lost and thousands of homes collapsed – Garg said that Rs 1,600 crore does not pass muster.

“This is nothing short of a mockery of Punjab. Punjab has always fed the nation and protected its borders. And today, when Punjab looked towards you with hope, you turned away,” Garg said.

Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema also criticised the Union government, alleging that the BJP is more interested in photo-ops than in providing genuine assistance.

“If the government of India can swiftly extend aid abroad, why can’t it release funds to Punjab with the same urgency?” he asked.

AAP Punjab chief Aman Arora also stated that the PM offered a pittance to the state. It amounts to a ‘blunt insult’ to the state's farmers and people and is a ‘slap on the face’ of all those people who lost everything, he added.

A day before Modi's announcement, the AAP government had announced a compensation of Rs 20,000 per acre of cropland lost.

Its decision came during a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday. He had previously repeatedly urged New Delhi to release Rs 60,000 crore in pending funds and to increase compensation for farmers from the current Rs 6,800 per acre to at least Rs 50,000 per acre.

But the state government's hopes appeared dashed by the PM's announcement, leaving the AAP in dock over its relief measures.

Both Union and state governments have disappointed us: farmers

As per latest state government data, 52 people had lost their lives as of late Tuesday. More than 2,000 villages were submerged under floodwaters, while over 1.7 lakh hectares of cropland suffered damage.

On the ground, people have struggled to rebuild their lives as they face overwhelming challenges.

At this critical juncture, flood victims have found themselves caught in the crossfire of claims and counterclaims arising from the politics over relief measures as well as over delays in the disbursement of this relief.

Sarwan Singh Pandher of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) told the media that farmers across the border state were hoping for compensation of Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 per acre, pointing out that standing crops, livestock and rural infrastructure had all been lost.

But the relief package announced by both the BJP-ruled Union government and the AAP government in Punjab had disappointed farmers and other victims of the floods, Pandher said.

He added both parties overlooked the suffering of flood victims on the ground. “We need more funds so that people can stand on their feet again. Otherwise, this flood will plunge them into a major death trap, aggravating their financial woes,” he said.

Akali Dal questions AAP over PM’s Rs 12,000 crore remark

During his visit, Modi while announcing the Rs 1,600 crore financial assistance for Punjab, underlined that this amount was in addition to Rs 12,000 crore already available with the state under its SDRF.

This statement has now become a focal point of the opposition's attacks on the AAP.

Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal demanded that the Union government increase its relief package but also sought an explanation from the AAP government over the Rs 12,000 crore worth of funds remaining.

“It is shocking that despite having Rs 12,000 crore available under the Disaster Management Fund, the AAP government failed to release aid when it was most needed. The government has compounded the woes of Punjabis with this criminal negligence,” Badal alleged.

Raising a similar issue, leader of opposition and Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said Punjab despite having just 2% of India’s population contributes 15-19% of the nation’s wheat and 11-13% of its rice production.

“Punjab literally feeds the nation, yet the relief announced by both the [Union government] and the state is grossly insufficient,” Bajwa said.

Cong state chief Warring too lambastes PM's package as ‘drop in the ocean’

The party's state president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said Modi had deeply disappointed Punjabis once again.

“Rs 1,600 crore is not even peanuts. The estimated losses run into the thousands of crores. I wonder what is the idea behind such meagre relief,” he added.

On the contrary, BJP state chief Sunil Jakhar defended New Delhi's grant and said that the AAP and other political parties were misleading the people over the relief package.

He highlighted Modi's claim that the Rs 1,600 crore in relief that the Union government has announced is on top of the Rs 12,000 crore allocated to the Punjab SDRF.

The prime minister had also announced Rs 2 lakh for the families of those who lost their lives, Rs 50,000 for the injured and full support for orphaned children through the PM CARES fund, Jakhar recalled.

Funds have also been allocated to convert tubewells to solar pumps, rebuild homes under the PM Awas Yojana, repair schools under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and restore National Highways. The next instalment of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi will also be released in advance, he said.

Union government teams are submitting their reports and New Delhi will further provide assistance to Punjab based on its perusal of these reports, he added.

He said: “I wholeheartedly thank the prime minister for supporting the people of Punjab during this challenging time.”

AAP says Union government's fund use criteria too stringent

Responding to New Delhi's claim that Punjab has Rs 12,000 crore lying in its SDRF, AAP state chief Arora on Wednesday claimed that the truth is that funds come with stringent Union government guidelines, making them ‘impossible’ to use.

Ten days ago, Mann wrote a letter to the Union government clearly stating that the criteria for using SDRF monies must be changed. Till today, there has been no response to that letter, said Arora.

The current criteria set by the Union government reduces compensation to a joke, he said.

For instance, he asked: can a person who is permanently disabled survive all their life on just Rs 74,000? Can flood-hit families replace all their destroyed household items with only Rs 2,500?

“We have said this earlier and we repeat it again – the Union government must immediately revise the criteria [for using] SDRF [funds]. Otherwise these funds have no use,” said Arora.

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