Punjab govt misleading people on flood relief: Ashwani Sharma
Chandigarh: In a scathing attack on the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP Government, senior BJP leader Ashwini Sharma has released a detailed “flood chargesheet” accusing the state administration of gross negligence, corruption, and political apathy during the devastating 2025 floods in Punjab.
The report — made public by Sharma — claims that the floods were “not a natural calamity, but a man-made disaster born out of the AAP government’s incompetence and misuse of funds.”
According to the document, the AAP government ignored repeated warnings from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which had forecast above-normal rainfall months before the monsoon. Despite this, the state reportedly failed to repair 133 vulnerable river points identified in a 2023 Water Resources Department report.
The chargesheet also highlights administrative instability within the Water Resources Ministry — which has seen three ministers in three years — and delays in critical pre-flood meetings as the ruling party focused on election campaigning in Delhi and Ludhiana West.
Sharma alleged that ₹12,589.59 crore in disaster management funds were already available to Punjab under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), yet “barely ₹141 crore was used, while the rest was diverted for political publicity and non-relief purposes.”
The document further claims that illegal sand mining continued unchecked, even during the monsoon ban period, weakening embankments and worsening soil erosion — a key factor behind the floods. At Madhopur Headworks, non-functional floodgates reportedly caused severe flooding in Pathankot and Gurdaspur after the Ranjit Sagar Dam released over two lakh cusecs of water.
Ashwini Sharma also questioned Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s absence from the state at the peak of the crisis, calling it “criminal negligence,” and accused AAP ministers of turning rescue operations into “photo-op politics.
The Centre has released more than ₹14,000 crore, including direct relief, soft loans, and contributions from BJP-ruled states. Yet, not a single paisa seems to have reached the people,” Sharma said, demanding a CAG-led investigation into the alleged misuse of SDRF funds.
The report concludes that despite repeated opportunities and abundant resources, the Punjab government failed to act, leading to “avoidable destruction, avoidable deaths, and avoidable suffering.
About The Author
