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Sukhu: Seraj Relief Package to be Extended Across All Disaster-Affected Areas of Himachal
Shimla, Updated At : 13:19 PM Aug 23, 2025 IST
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, while participating in the five-day debate on the monsoon disaster under Rule 67 in the Assembly today, announced that the disaster relief package initially declared for areas hit by the Seraj cloudburst in Mandi district will now be extended to all disaster-affected regions of Himachal Pradesh.
He added that the state government has written to the Centre, seeking permission to allot one bigha of forest land to those who lost their homes and no longer have land to rebuild. The CM also clarified that the relief package would cover extensive losses suffered in Kangra’s low-lying areas due to the release of water from the Pong Dam, which damaged both crops and houses.
“Our government has amended the relief manual, significantly increasing compensation for all categories of losses. For instance, the compensation for a fully damaged house has been raised to ₹7 lakh,” Sukhu said.
He stressed that the government is committed to providing relief for every kind of loss—be it houses, cowsheds, livestock, or household goods.
Earlier, Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi responded to the debate in the absence of the Opposition, which had announced a boycott. He launched a sharp attack on Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, alleging that BJP legislators walked out of the Assembly merely to satisfy the ego of their former Chief Minister. Negi remarked that the Opposition’s absence on such a sensitive issue reflected its lack of seriousness, with its only aim being political point-scoring.
Outlining the government’s preparedness and response measures, Negi said: “Our focus has been on providing immediate relief—whether medical aid, food, or shelter. To strengthen support, the government revised the relief manual and enhanced compensation rates several times over.”
He also highlighted the broader causes behind the scale of the devastation, citing climate change, global warming, illegal felling of trees, unscientific waste dumping, and local atmospheric conditions. “Most of Himachal is made up of young folded mountains, which suffer severe damage during monsoons. Earlier, monsoon losses would typically range between ₹1,000 crore and ₹3,000 crore, but in 2023 the figure will cross ₹10,000 crore,” Negi noted. He further pointed out that rainfall in August exceeded the state’s average by 17 percent.
Urban Development and Town Planning Minister Rajesh Dharmani, along with MLAs Deep Raj, Vinod Sultanpuri, Pawan Kajal, Sanjay Awasthi, Randhir Sharma, Sanjay Rattan, D.S. Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Gaur, and Janak Raj, also took part in the debate.
