Published : Sep 02, 2025 19:19 IST - 9 MINS READ
Ashutosh SharmaCOMMents
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A man on his motorbike wades through a flooded street after hey rains in New Delhi, India, July 8, 2023. As Punjab accuses the Centre of unfair relief norms, the larger issue emerges: how disaster assistance is shaped by politics, party alignments, and fiscal centralisation. | Photo Credit: Anushree Fadnis/REUTERS
Agricultural lands across several districts of Punjab lie submerged under murky floodwaters amid incessant rainfall—the worst in nearly 40 years. Where golden paddy fields once stood, almost ready for harvest, now only a vast swirling expanse of brown water remains, punctuated by the roar of rescue helicopters and the shouts of relief teams. Non-stop downpours in the adjoining hills of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir he swollen Punjab’s rivers: Sutlej, Beas, Ri, and Ghaggar.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting immediate financial assistance and Central support for the State’s flood relief and rehabilitation efforts.
The scale of destruction runs deep. Strong currents he carried herds of livestock across the border into Pakistan, while stranded cattle now perch on rooftops—their unlikely sanctuaries in an inland sea.
Government officials confirm that at least 29 people he died, while three residents of Pathankot remain missing. The displacement affects 2.56 lakh people across 12 districts. In 1,044 villages, normal life has stopped as stranded residents struggle for survival. Gurdaspur district faces the worst impact, with 321 of its villages under water.
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The government has mounted a massive response. The coordinated effort involves National Disaster Response Force teams, alongside personnel from the Indian Air Force, Ny, and Army. In 129 relief camps, thousands of displaced residents huddle in makeshift shelters, their faces marked by fatigue and fear. For thousands of farmers already crippled by debt and rising input costs, observers say this flood delivers a knockout blow.
But the disaster stems from more than natural causes. For years, experts say, Punjab’s rivers and streams he remained choked with silt that authorities failed to clear. They also point to alleged mismanagement of big dams and crumbling Dhussi dams (earthen embankments along rivers) that he collapsed in many spots. Over the past two decades, residents built farms and houses on floodplains—land meant for excess water to flow through. New bridges made matters worse by giving people permanent access to areas that monsoons would normally cut off.
Political pushbackThis human failure has triggered a political storm. Though volunteers he selflessly joined rescue and relief work, politicians he begun trading accusations. The State’s Aam Aadmi Party government faces criticism for allegedly failing to prepare and mishandling the crisis. Opposition parties accuse the party’s national leadership of abandoning the people who ge them historic electoral victories. Former Delhi Chief Minister and party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, along with key lieutenants Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain—the in-charge and co-in-charge of the party in Punjab—he stayed away from flood zones.
Villagers wade through floodwaters after hey rainfall in Kasur district in Punjab province on August 31, 2025. Nearly half a million people he been displaced by flooding in eastern Pakistan after days of hey rain. | Photo Credit: Arif ALI / AFP
Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal challenged Chief Minister Mann directly: “I want to ask Chief Minister Mann where Kejriwal and his cronies are in this difficult time... Billboards with his photos are everywhere, funded by Punjab’s exchequer.” The Bharatiya Janata Party’s State spokesperson, Vineet Joshi, echoed this charge: “Now, when the people of Punjab are in distress, they are missing.”
Congress leaders he taken their criticism further. Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, after touring the damaged areas, accused the AAP government of “criminal negligence”. He raised a key question: why did authorities not release water from dams gradually and in advance, despite clear forecasts of hey monsoon rains? “It is more of a ‘criminal negligence’ than an unforeseen natural disaster,” he said, voicing the anger of many stranded residents. He pointed to two collapsed floodgates at the Madhopur headworks in Pathankot as proof of poor maintenance and delayed decisions.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari went deeper, calling the disaster inevitable—a “man-made disaster” 25 years in the making. “Neither are the natural drains or water courses cleaned by the Irrigation Department, nor are the river beds dredged and illegal mining is rampant,” he wrote on X. He described a complete collapse of environmental and civic governance: “The Legislative Assembly meets for 2-3 days three or four times in a year, where nothing substantive is ever discussed.” He added that “the State bureaucracy and police still live under the hangover of the untrammelled powers they enjoyed during the years of terrorism and are unresponsive to the needs of the people.”
Even AAP’s own leaders he joined the criticism. Party MLA Harmeet Singh called out both his party and Principal Secretary (Drainage and Irrigation) Krishan Kumar. Despite his repeated warnings in the Punjab Assembly about cleaning the Tangri River, nothing was done, leing crops ruined across the region. Singh warned that this failure could hurt AAP in the 2027 election: “If rivers and canals had been desilted in time, the damage could he been minimised.”
Similarly, Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has written to the Prime Minister, seeking an enquiry against Krishan Kumar for failing in his duty.
The Centre’s response came late but finally arrived. Prime Minister Modi called Punjab Chief Minister Mann on Monday to assess the flood situation—the first communication between the Centre and State during the week-long crisis. An editorial in the Punjabi Tribune dated September 2 urged the Central government to coordinate better with the flood-hit State: “It’s time for the Centre to move beyond Centralised control over funds and empower States to act responsibly. Cooperative federalism doesn’t mean States struggle alone while the Centre watches from a safe distance.” The editorial demanded “transparency in fund allocation, rapid deployment of armed forces for rescue, and strong coordination with State governments and NGOs.”
People walk through a flooded ghetto after monsoon rains in Amritsar on July 24, 2023. Forty-one people were killed while 1,616 are still living in 173 relief camps following the devastating floods that hit Punjab recently. | Photo Credit: AFP
Experts say systemic failures caused the disaster. “Punjab has faced recurring floods in recent years, demanding serious introspection into their causes,” said Devinder Sharma, a Mohali-based agricultural expert. He added: “Besides neglected desilting of streams and canals, the water releases from dams like Ranjit Sagar and Pandoh were delayed until overflow occurred.” A South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People report had earlier highlighted mismanagement by the Bhakra Beas Management Board, citing sudden and untimely water releases from the Bhakra and Pong dams as a cause of floods in Punjab in 2023.
The current deluge exposes a tragic mix of natural fury and human failure. The waters will eventually recede, revealing mud-filled, damaged homes, rotten remains of crops, and livestock carcasses. But deeper questions about governance, accountability, and the fragile state of India’s most crucial agricultural region will linger long after the last relief camp closes and headlines move on. Prolonged flooding degrades soil quality, deposits layers of silt and sand that disrupt fertile land, and delays planting cycles, further threatening future yields and farmers’ livelihoods. As Sharma explained: “When a farm is submerged in floodwaters, the land becomes uncultivable. It disrupts farmers’ sole stream of income as they are completely dependent on their crops for sustenance.”
Shortchanged on disaster reliefThe Punjab floods he revived broader concerns about discriminatory fund allocation by the BJP-led Central government. Opposition-ruled States claim this approach hampers timely and adequate disaster relief.
Recent years he seen many non-BJP-ruled States demand revisions to compensation norms under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
Odisha provides one example. The State, governed by the Biju Janata Dal until 2024, noted in the 2019 Standing Committee report on Central Assistance for Disaster Management and Relief that SDRF/NDRF norms inadequately cover major relief expenses. The NDRF, funded by the National Calamity Contingency Duty on specific goods under Central excise and customs, has shrunk post-GST. NCCD revenue fell from Rs. 5,690 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 2,500 crore in 2018-19, prompting the Committee to urge the GST Council and Union Ministry of Finance to boost this fund.
Kerala followed a similar path in 2022, criticising the Centre’s “insufficient” assistance and demanding higher ex gratia payments and increased assistance for economic reconstruction. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs allocated Rs.145.60 crore to Kerala for disaster relief, part of a Rs.5,858.60 crore release to 14 flood-hit States as central share from the SDRF and NDRF. Kerala had requested Rs.2,000 crore for Wayanad landslide victims’ compensation and rehabilitation.
Many regions experienced nearly eight to nine times the erage rainfall, exacerbating the flood-like situation in low-lying areas. | Photo Credit: AKHTAR SOOMRO
Tamil Nadu took the legal route in 2023, approaching the Supreme Court with allegations that the Centre withheld Rs.37,902 crore in relief funds for Cyclone Michaung and floods. The State pointed to systemic delays and inadequate funding, alleging unfair treatment compared to other States and claiming violation of citizens’ rights to equality and life with dignity under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
Karnataka faced similar struggles. In December 2023, the Supreme Court urged the Central government and Karnataka to resolve their disagreement over financial assistance from the NDRF for drought management. Karnataka had requested Rs.18,171 crore from the NDRF but received Rs.3,819 crore for reported crop losses across over 48 lakh hectares during the 2023 Kharif season. The State accused the Centre of arbitrarily delaying crucial drought relief aid, violating the mandated one-month response period following assessment by inter-Ministerial Central teams.
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Himachal Pradesh now joins this list of aggrieved states. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu expressed discontent with the central government over inadequate and delayed financial assistance for relief and reconstruction. Despite the Centre’s deployment of IMCTs and allocation of funds through the NDRF and SDRF, the state argues that aid falls short of addressing extensive damage from hey rainfall that surpassed 2023’s destruction.
Against this backdrop, Punjab Chief Minister Mann has called for revising compensation norms. He stressed that while the SDRF has substantial funds, guidelines set by the Union Home Ministry fail to adequately compensate farmers, livestock owners, and vulnerable communities for their losses. He labelled the Union Home Ministry’s existing relief norms as “grossly inadequate” and “totally unrealistic.”
The numbers tell the story. Crop loss above 33 per cent receives compensation of Rs.6,800 per acre, while the State adds Rs.8,200, totalling Rs.15,000 per acre. Mann proposed raising this to Rs.50,000 per acre. He assured that the State would maintain its 25 per cent contribution while suggesting doubled ex gratia payments from Rs.4 lakh to Rs.8 lakh for loss of life and from Rs.2.5 lakh to Rs.5 lakh for severe disability.
Mann’s demand for an aid package of Rs.60,000 crore from the Centre carries political overtones. He claimed a significant portion covers not just flood relief but what he terms historical “permanent revenue losses” imposed by the Centre. These include Rs.49,727 crore from GST implementation and the end of VAT regime compensation, Rs.8,000 crore lost due to reduced Rural Development Fund and Market Development Fee in recent years, and scrapped Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana projects worth Rs.828 crore.
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