Only 229 people are left in relief camps as families continue to return home, informed Punjab Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management Minister S. Hardeep Singh Mundian on Saturday. He said that the number of active relief camps has dropped sharply within the last 24 hours from 35 to just 16. 

The Cabinet Minister said that 665 more affected people returned to their homes today, while the total number of inmates stood at 894 yesterday. 

He said that the number of villages affected has gone up slightly from 2,539 to 2,555, mainly due to fresh reports from Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana. 

Sharing further details, S. Mundian said that Hoshiarpur saw 11 more villages affected, taking the total to 350, while 5 affected villages added in district Ludhiana, taking the count to 131. Similarly, the overall population affected increased only marginally from 3,89,387 to 3,89,445 due to 58 new cases reported in Hoshiarpur. 

Highlighting the progress on rehabilitation, the Minister said that relief camps witnessed a steep decline. Moga, Pathankot and Jalandhar closed all their remaining camps while Fazilka saw a major drop in inmates from 620 to 219. Inmates in Jalandhar camps, which stood at 103 a day earlier, have all returned home. 

The Revenue Minister also informed that the total crop area affected has risen from 1,99,766 hectares to 1,99,926 hectares due to fresh inputs mainly from Mansa and Hoshiarpur, adding 121 hectares and 39 hectares respectively. He underlined that the overall impact remains stable with no major change across other districts.