The Punjab government on September 20 ordered an inquiry that resulted in the suspension of three officials over negligence in the flood preparation operations before the monsoon. The suspended officials include an executive engineer along with two other technical workers, who were found responsible for the collapse of three floodgates of Madhopur Barrage in August.
How did the floodgates collapse?
The fatal incident transpired in the last week of August and left a trail of disaster in the state of Punjab. It is believed that roughly 2.12 lakh cusecs of water were released from the Ranjit Sagar Dam to Madhopur, where floodgates failed to open due to improper maintenance, leading to severe flooding in areas of Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts.
Three of the 54 floodgates of the barrage had collapsed on August 27 following heavy rainfall in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab, which caused the Ravi to overflow. The 54 floodgates at the barrage were reportedly sealed after Operation Sindoor, to stop the flow of water to Pakistan.
Union Minister for Railways’ response
The incident has led to the death of an employee of the Water Resources Department, who was swept away by the Ravi after he, along with two others, had gone to manually open the gates. The Indian Army rescued 22 personnel at the headworks who were stationed there to help open the floodgates.
Following the tragedy, Union Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu on Monday demanded the resignation of Punjab’s Water Resources Minister Barinder Goyal, stating that merely suspending three officials was not enough. He asserted that both the Chief Minister and the minister should be held accountable for gross negligence in flood preparation before the onset of monsoons.