New Delhi, Sep 7 (PTI) Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Sunday said Delhi stands shoulder to shoulder with Punjab during the flood crisis as she flagged off 52 trucks carrying relief materials to the state.

The trucks were dispatched by the Delhi BJP. Speaking at the event, she said that the floods in Punjab have left thousands of families homeless and displaced.

“In these difficult times, the Delhi government is committed to sharing their pain and extending every possible assistance,” she said.

She informed that the trucks are carrying food grains, drinking water, clothes, tarpaulins, medicines, sanitary kits, milk powder for children and other essential daily-use items. The Delhi government organised the collection and packing of relief materials on a war footing so that assistance could reach the affected areas at the earliest, she said.

The CM said that besides relief material, the government has contributed Rs 5 crore to the Punjab Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

CM Gupta also spoke with her Punjab counterpart and assured him of support until the situation stabilises, said an official statement.

“At this time, when natural calamities have caused distress and hardship in the country and in Punjab, we must hold one another’s hands and stand united. From our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have learnt how to stand with any nation in the world when it faces adversity,” she said.

Punjab is facing one of its worst floods in decades. The death count due to the devastating floods has gone up to 46 till Saturday, while crops on 1.75 lakh hectares of land have been damaged in the deluge, according to officials.

The floods are a result of swollen rivers, such as the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi, along with seasonal rivulets, following heavy rainfall in their catchment areas in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. PTI SLB AMJ AMJ