Sirsa (Haryana) [India], September 13 : Minister of State (MoS) of Coal and Mines Satish Dubey on Saturday inspected the flood-affected areas in Sirsa, Haryana and assured that the Centre is committed to providing facilities and support to affected people.
Speaking with ANI, Satish Dubey said, "I have spoken with the people. Under the leadership of PM Modi and the state government, the government is committed to providing whatever facilities can be provided to support the victims during this time of grief."
"There should be a permanent solution to this. Those who have applied, I will forward the requests to the Government of India and the Haryana government and will try to get the work done," he added.
Earlier in the day, Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda criticised the state government for a lack of flood relief measures and said that the government is not taking concrete steps to help and provide relief to the flood victims.
He noted that people are very angry at the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government for not taking flood relief measures and how there has been huge devastation in Haryana due to the floods.
"The flood has destroyed 18 lakh acres of standing crops of farmers. About six thousand villages, 11 cities and 72 towns have been affected by the flood. Four lakh farmers have uploaded information about crop damage on the portal, while the number of victims is much more than this", Hooda said during a press conference.
He underscored that the government should immediately give compensation to the farmers at the rate of Rs 70 thousand per acre.
The former Chief Minister, who returned to Chandigarh after visiting various districts of the state, while talking to the media, said that this time the situation is worse than the flood of 1995.
"Fields, crops and poplars adjacent to the Yamuna were washed away. Sugarcane crops have been uprooted from the roots, and large amounts of sand have accumulated in the fields, making it impossible to sow the crop of the next season. Illegal mining in the area is responsible for making the flood more horrific," he said.