Irked residents block highway

Our Correspondent

Jagraon, June 26

Perturbed over the accumulation of dirty water due to choked sewerage in the area, residents of Gandhi Mohalla in the town staged a protest on highway today.

Protesters, including a large number of women, blocked the Jalandhar-Barnala highway for around two hours. The protesters raised slogans against the local Municipal Council (MC).

According to residents, the sewerage in the area was lying blocked for past many days. They said despite their repeated requests the Water Supply and Sewerage Board paid no attention towards the problem faced by them. They said stagnant water had inundated streets of their locality thus causing a lot of inconvenience to them.

While speaking during the protest, BJP leader and area councillor Darshan Singh Gill claimed he raised the issue with authorities many times, but nothing was done to solve the problem. Meanwhile, streets of the area remain flooded with dirty water from the sewerage.

Residents complained that they were forced to drink sewerage water, which leaked into water supply pipes.

“We have to face immense difficulties due to dirty sewerage water in streets of our localities. Our lives have turned into a virtual hell. Besides, we have also been facing shortage of clean drinking water,” rued Dalip Singh, one of the protesters.

Meanwhile, the SDO of the Water Supply and Sewerage Board , Shinderpal Singh, also reached the protest site. He assured residents to solve the problem following which they lifted the blockade. However, residents threatened to block the highway again on Tuesday if their problem was not solved at the earliest.

The sub divisional officer (SDO), Shinderpal Singh, said the work of cleaning the blocked sewerage had already started and the problem would be rectified soon.