Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Sultanpur Lodhi, Rana Inder Partap Singh, in a strong worded statement has called for immediate accountability and structural reform of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) in the wake of devastating floods that have submerged lakhs of hectares of standing crops across Punjab.
\nRana Inder Partap Singh expressed deep concern over the ineffectiveness and inaction of the BBMB, which manages the water regulation from the Bhakra and Pong dams over the Sutlej and Beas rivers. \u201cThe BBMB has failed in its responsibility to safeguard the people and agriculture of Punjab. Timely and appropriate steps were not taken, which led to catastrophic flooding,\u201d said Rana Inder Partap Singh.
\nRefuting possible BBMB claims that this year\u2019s monsoon brought an unprecedented amount of water, Sultanpur Lodhi legislator argued that the failure to release surplus water from the previous season compounded the disaster. \u201cHad the board not carried forward the load of water from last year, the scale of this disaster would have been minimal. The disaster was foreseeable and avoidable,\u201d he stated.
\nEmphasizing the need for a collective political response, Rana Inder Partap Singh has called for an all-party meeting to fix accountability on the BBMB and to devise a comprehensive and proactive mechanism that ensures such disasters are prevented in the future.
\n\u201cIt is high time that all political parties rise above partisan interests and come together to protect the lives, livelihoods, and fields of Punjab\u2019s people,\u201d he said.
\nHighlighting the situation in his own constituency, Rana Inder Partap Singh noted that Sultanpur Lodhi was among the first to be hit by floodwaters, given its geographical proximity to Harike, the critical confluence point of the Sutlej and Beas rivers. Later the flood water spread in all directions submerging standing paddy crop which would have been mature and harvested in less than a month\u2019s time.
\n\u201cThe people Punjab particularly the farmers have suffered the most. Yet, we are still waiting for effective intervention and support,\u201d he added.
\nThe MLA also pointed out the failure to implement basic flood control measures in time. \u201cDespite repeated warnings, rivers, canals, and watercourses were not de-silted. The embankments remained weak and neglected. I raised this issue well in advance, but the warnings were ignored,\u201d said Rana Inder Partap Singh. \u201cIn my opinion, politicians can often foresee such problems. But this time, they failed\u2014and the people paid the price,\u201d he added.
\nRana Inder Partap Singh urged both the state and central governments to take immediate action against the lapses and reform BBMB functioning to make it more transparent, accountable, and responsive. \u201cWe owe it to our farmers, to our future, and to the very soil of Punjab,\u201d he reiterated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Sultanpur Lodhi, Rana Inder Partap Singh, in a strong worded statement has called for immediate accountability and structural reform of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) in the wake of devastating floods that have submerged lakhs of hectares of standing crops across Punjab. Rana Inder Partap Singh expressed deep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9852,14176,20,16185,1],"tags":[40544,40551,40550,7739],"class_list":["post-64127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-cover-story","category-india","category-national","category-punjab","tag-bhakra-beas-management-board","tag-prevent-flood-disasters","tag-rana-inder-partap-singh","tag-sultanpur-lodhi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64129,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64127\/revisions\/64129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}