Bathinda’s Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday asked the Centre to give a financial package to Punjab to compensate its farmers for the huge losses suffered by them due to recent flooding following incessant rains as well as repeated crop failures.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Harsimrat also requested Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to sanction funds for upgrading the trauma centre in AIIMS Bathinda to 300 beds. She said the institute’s emergency block could handle only 28 emergencies.

“Since three national highways and two stage highways crisscross the city leading to a high incidence of accidents besides the presence of both the army and air force cantonments, the trauma centre in AIIMS Bathinda should be upgraded immediately.”