Chandigarh: Punjab’s Education Minister Harjot Bains on Saturday said he was bitten by a venomous snake during a rescue operation in a flood-hit area in Anandpur Sahib in Rupnagar district of the state.
He posted on X (formerly Twitter), the snake bit him on the night of August 15 and his condition is better now. However, the minister also mentioned that even the snake bite didn’t deter his determination to help the people of his constituency.
He wrote, “With God’s grace and people’s love and blessings, I’m alright now. The effect of the venom is receding and my blood tests have come out normal as well.”
Notably, many areas in Punjab’s Rupnagar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, and Ferozepur districts were flooded after the release of excess water from the Pong and Bhakra dams because of heavy rains in the state earlier.
Moreover, the water level in Beas and Sutlej rivers had gone up following the release of the excess water from the two reservoirs, which led to flooding in the low-lying areas near their banks. In Rupnagar, several villages, including Harsa Bela, Bhalan, Bhanam, and Bela in Anandpur Sahib and Nangal were inundated.
Earlier this week, around 300 people were rescued from flooded villages in Punjab’s Kapurthala as Army and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams contributed to relief and rescue work in the affected districts in the state.
Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner Karnail Singh informed that six teams of the NDRF and Army pressed six boats to rescue locals caught in the floods and after being successfully rescued, people were shifted to relief camps, news agency PTI reported.
The official said that a total of 22 villages were affected by floods in the Beas River after the release of excess water from the Bhakra Dam.
