The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday slammed the Manohar Lal Khattar government over flooding in many places in Haryana, alleging that the BJP-JJP government was unprepared for the calamity and was "caught napping".
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Senior leader of AAP's Haryana unit Anurag Dhanda further criticised the state government for not taking appropriate steps to strengthen embankments along Ghaggar and Yamuna rivers as a result of which, several breaches took place leading to flooding in many villages.
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Addressing the media here, Dhanda said he along with other party leaders and workers visited the flood-affected areas in Haryana to take stock of the situation and get feedback from flood victims over the preparation of the state government in dealing with the situation.
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Dhanda said the AAP leaders visited flood-affected areas of Kurukshetra, Karnal, Yamunanagar, Kaithal, Fatehabad, and Sirsa.
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"The Haryana government was unprepared for dealing with the flood situation and was caught napping," alleged Dhanda as he took on the state government over the flooding of many areas in Haryana.
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He said more than 1,300 villages of the state were flood-affected. ?"Of these, 150 to 200 villages were completely cut off from the road," he said. ?
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Dhanda said flood victims rued that if boats were made available to them then they could have managed the situation. ?
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It is a matter of shame that in this modern era, the Khattar government and the administration together could not provide a boat in any flood-affected village, he claimed. ?
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Dhanda alleged that the district administration could not reach most of the flood-hit villages.
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The AAP leader accused the state government of not taking measures for strengthening embankments along the Ghaggar and Yamuna rivers.
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He claimed that in the last nine years, not even a single embankment was strengthened by the Khattar government.
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Embankments along the Yamuna River breached at eight places and because of this floodwaters entered many villages, he said.
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Dhanda said a 10 kilometres stretch of embankment along the Ghaggar River had not been strengthened for the last three decades.
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The party's senior leader asked the Haryana government about Rs 3,000 crore which was allocated for flood protection in the last nine years.
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For flood-protection measures, a sum of Rs 120 crore was allocated in 2017-18, Rs 100 crore in 2018-19, Rs 185 crore in 2019-20, Rs 190 crore in 2020-21, Rs 260 crore in 2021-22, Rs 350 crore in 2022-23 for flood prevention. And Rs 370 crore was proposed for 2023-24, he said. ?
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"Where did Rs 3,000 crore go," he asked as he alleged that no important work was done for strengthening embankments along any river.