Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday slammed the Opposition for allegedly politicising a natural calamity and said he is busy in ensuring relief for the Punjabis and will give a befitting reply to them at an appropriate time.

“It’s my promise I will reply to you after some days and then at that time you will run away from debate,” said the Mann while interacting with reporters on the sidelines of his visit to flood affected areas in Patiala district.

The CM said it was strange that while he is busy serving the Punjabis affected by the floods, the Opposition is grabbing this as an opportunity to settle the political scores with me. He called it shameful on the part of leaders of the Opposition that they are stooping too low by mudslinging during this hour of crisis.

Mann said once safety and security of the people of state is ensured, he will surely reply to these idle and rejected political leaders.

He dared the Opposition to explain if the rain took place due to him or if he was responsible for excessive flow of water in the state from hills.

The Chief Minister said those who are boasting that Centre has issued Rs 218 crore must remember that this fund was issued on July 10. The state government can’t spend this amount in 72 hours. The damage has been minimised as the government had taken preventive measures well in advance.

Mann said Ghaggar was cleaned well in advance like the other drains and rivulets in the states. He said the state will not beg for any financial assistance from Centre but will certainly send the estimates of loss to them and if Centre will help it is okay, otherwise state is capable of managing it on its own.

The CM said due to continuous de-silting and cleaning of canals well in advance the water has reached at their tail end a few days back. He said that now also these cleaned drains and rivulets carried maximum water thereby ensuring less damage.

The CM said the states like Himachal and Haryana always demand for water and cess from the state whereas now they are not ready to keep excessive water with them. He said that these states are putting their excessive water towards the state thereby causing huge damage in Punjab.

Mann said it is surprising that now these states are mum on their share of waters from Punjab and are sending excess water to us to ruin the state.

Meanwhile, in view of the situation caused by rains and floods in the state, the Punjab government has decided to extend holidays in all government, aided, recognised and private schools in the state till 16 July.

To speed up the relief operations in Punjab,  the number of relief camps has been increased from 127 to 183 in flood affected 14 districts.

A spokesperson said 1159 villages in 14 districts have been affected by the flood till 8 a.m. on 13 July. He said some towns have also been hit by floods.

The 14 districts are affected by floods include Patiala, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Pathankot, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Faridkot, Hoshiarpur, Rupnagar, Moga, Ludhiana, Mohali and Sangrur.