Chandigarh, Sept. 7 -- The Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government on Saturday hit back at Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's claim that illegal sand mining triggered the floods in the state, with two cabinet ministers dismissing the charge as baseless and misleading. The floods were caused by record rainfall and unprecedented inflow of water in rivers, not illegal mining, said Punjab water resources minister Barinder Kumar Goyal, strongly refuting Chouhan's allegation. Instead of political blame games, the present focus must remain on relief and rehabilitation of affected families, said Goyal. Chouhan's statement had come after his Thursday visit to flood-ravaged areas in Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Kapurthala. Through a post on 'X', the minister had attributed the flooding to weakened embankments along the Sutlej, Beas, Ravi and Ghaggar rivers, compromised by illegal mining activities. Rejecting Chouhan's claims, Goyal said the unprecedented rainfall was the sole cause of floods, with Chamba recording 1,205% excess rain, Kangra 275% and Pathankot 820% on August 25 alone. Terming the Union minister's statement Illogical, the cabinet minister further clarified that mining was banned in Ravi within 5 km of the international border due to army and BSF restrictions, while Beas was also a "Conservation Reserve" where mining was prohibited. No mining exists in Ghaggar, while in Sutlej, operations are permitted only under approved mine plans. He stressed that regulated mining in Punjab did not endanger river embankments and no mining activity was permitted within 100 metres of flood protection embankments. "Punjab witnessed an extraordinary discharge of 14.11 lakh cusecs in Ravi this year, surpassing the 11.2 lakh cusecs recorded in 1988. Strengthening works worth over Rs.200 crore undertaken by the Punjab government during the last two years ensured that embankments withstood the pressure, with no breaches reported along government-controlled bundhs of Beas river," he claimed. He pointed out that attributing such natural calamity to illegal mining was unjust to the suffering people of Punjab. Punjab minister and state AAP president Aman Arora termed Chouhan's statement shameful. "What allegation will he make for the floods in J&K, Himachal, Uttarakhand and Haryana? Instead of holding hands of people at this time, they (BJP leaders) come to do politics," he said while hitting out at Chouhan. Arora slammed BJP leaders for "visiting flood-hit areas just for photo-ops....