Month on, slums near Majitha bypass inundated by sewage

AMRITSAR: The ongoing sewerage laying work, under a project of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), along the Majitha bypass road has turned the lives of the ragpickers, who have been residing nearby for over two decades, into a virtual hell.

Slum dwellers wade through a pool of sewage near the Majitha bypass in Amritsar on Thursday. photos: vishal kumar

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 24

The ongoing sewerage laying work, under a project of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), along the Majitha bypass road has turned the lives of the ragpickers, who have been residing nearby for over two decades, into a virtual hell. Amid no system to drain out the sewage, it has got accumulated in the slums for the past one month. The JICA project aims at covering the open drain.

Residents say that their repeated complaints to the construction company have fallen on deaf ears.

Jagtar Singh Karampura, a communist leader, on Thursday said that it was inhuman on part of the private company as well as civic authorities which had failed to find a suitable option to dispose of the sewage. They simply chose to divert the sewage towards the vacant land where economically-poor people, majority of them ragpickers, have been residing, he said.

“Being illiterate and poor, they do not know where to go and lodge complaint. Another question is who will listen to them?” Karampura asked.

Sukhman, a resident of the area, said the sewage had spilled over to the residential area and they couldn’t even cook in such an unhygienic environment. The dirty water stinks, making the residents vulnerable to various diseases. “We have been living in the area for the past two decades. We are registered voters but nobody cares for us,” he said.

Children can be seen wading through the pool of sewage. The residents have been living in temporary sheds and huts. The threat of diseases looms large. They have urged the authorities concerned to look into it.

Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu said, “The project is being carried out by the sewerage board under the JICA project. The Municipal Corporation has nothing to do with it. We have repeated asked the authorities of the sewerage board and agencies involved in the JICA project. I will ask the MC officials to visit the place and take up the issue with the authorities concerned and get the problem solved.”