Chandigarh : BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh said that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has been caught red-handed misleading the people of Punjab on the Rs. 12,000 crore State Disaster Response Fund. Making the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report public, Chugh said the truth is clear—Punjab had Rs. 9,041.74 crore SDRF balance as of March 31, 2023, and as of March 31, 2024, the balance stood at Rs. 10,380.41 crore. Funds for 2023–24, 2024–25 and 2025–26 have also been released, taking the kitty to nearly Rs. 12,000 crore. “Chief Minister Sahib, even your own Chief Secretary, admitted this reluctantly in front of you. Your ministers have admitted it too. Then why were you lying to Punjabis? Stop misleading, apologise to the people, and use this money to provide relief,” Chugh said.
Chugh said it is a violation of central rules that the Punjab government did not even make proper investments of the SDRF balance. “The money was meant for disaster relief, not to sit idle in accounts. And not a single rupee should be diverted for advertisements or AAP’s political stunts. Every paisa belongs to the flood-hit people of Punjab.”
He further warned that the Chief Minister cannot hide behind excuses anymore. “You cannot say ‘I don’t know where the money is.’ That is not leadership. People of Punjab elected Bhagwant Mann, not Arvind Kejriwal. If you run the state as per Kejriwal’s contract, Punjab will never forgive you,” Chugh said.
Chugh also pointed to the devastation in Ludhiana’s Sasrali village and adjoining Budhgarh and Kasabad, where more than 100 acres of farmland has been lost to erosion. Chugh recalled visiting Sasrali last week, where villagers told him that they had filed an FIR on April 18, 2025 against illegal mining but the Mann government did nothing. “This deaf government sat silent while illegal mining weakened the riverbanks. That is why I call it a Mann-Made Disaster.”
Chugh demanded a CBI inquiry into all mining tenders in Punjab, linking the loot under illegal mining and illegal felling directly to the land erosion witnessed in Ludhiana. He said the sand mafia thrives under Kejriwal’s political protection and must now face accountability. “Punjab deserves transparency on every rupee of SDRF, and action against those who are responsible for this disaster.” Chugh said.
Chugh also hit out at the arbitrary and unjust diktat of giving farmers just 3 months to remove silt from their submerged fields. “Floods have buried farmland under mountains of sand and clay. Farmers don’t have heavy machinery or resources. Instead of giving them help, the Mann government has given them an impossible task. After 3 months, the government takes control and then Kejriwal–Sisodia’s sand mafia steps in to loot Punjab. This is cruelty in the name of relief.”
He pointed to farmer unions rejecting the scheme outright, saying the mixed silt has no market value and that farmers would be forced to spend thousands per acre on excavation. “Even sarpanches have said—give us JCBs and earthmovers if you are serious. Otherwise, this is just another way to harass farmers and leave them at the mercy of officers. If the government truly cares, it should allow this sand to be used for strengthening bundhs to prevent future floods, not for lining the pockets of AAP’s mining mafia,” Chugh added.