Chandigarh, Sep 1 (IANS) With Punjab grappling with the worst floods in 37 years and the situation devastating, putting millions of lives at risk as families have lost homes and hard-earned crops, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday spoke to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over the phone, discussed the situation and assured assistance.

The Home Minister assured CM Mann of full support with adequate deployment of NDRF teams and Indian Army camps for rescue and relief operations in mitigating the hardship faced by the people.

After closing schools, the Punjab government ordered all colleges, universities and polytechnics in the state to be closed till September 3 as a preventive step. State Education Minister Harjot Bains wrote on X, “Due to continuous heavy rainfall across Punjab since last night, all colleges, universities, and polytechnic institutes will also remain closed till 3rd September 2025 with immediate effect. The responsibility for the wellbeing of students residing in hostels lies with the respective administrations. Everyone is requested to strictly follow the guidelines issued by local authorities.”

A day earlier, on the directions of Home Minister Shah, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) constituted Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs), each for Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to assess damage caused by heavy rainfall, flood, flash flood, cloudburst and landslides.

The IMCT would make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation and relief works carried out by the state governments.

The central teams will visit early next week the flood- and landslide-affected districts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, which have been severely affected by heavy to extremely heavy rainfall and incidents of flash flood, cloudburst and landslides, during the current monsoon season.

With 26 deaths, 2.50 lakh persons in nearly 1,300 villages across eight districts affected and standing crops on over 3 lakh acres of land destroyed, Chief Minister Mann, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, sought the release of the state’s pending dues of Rs 60,000 crore.

The AAP government urged the Centre to allow it to change the norms for disaster relief compensation for crop loss, increasing it from the current Rs 6,800 per acre, where the crop loss is over 33 per cent, to Rs 50,000 per acre.

State BJP unit president Sunil Jakhar has also written to Prime Minister Modi seeking immediate central assistance to mitigate the damage caused by severe flooding in the state. In his letter dated August 30, Jakhar highlighted the “catastrophic natural disaster” that has hit the state, which he termed as integral to India’s food security and national resilience.

–IANS

vg/dpb