Dhuri’s ‘innovative’ waste disposal

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, April 30

Instead of taking steps to prevent disposal of waste into a sub-canal passing through Dhuri or undertaking a cleaning exercise, the Irrigation Department authorities released water in the sub-canal to push the waste towards Sangrur city.

Since water was released for a few hours, waste has got stuck at different places, much to the annoyance of farmers, who say it would cause problems for them once the water is released in it for irrigation purposes. The canal may now overflow in case water is released before cleaning it.

Sources said in absence of any check, the sub-canal had become a main waste dumping site for majority of Dhuri residents. There were heaps of garbage at several places on Friday. A day later, the irrigation authorities released water into the canal for a few hours, pushing the waste towards Sangrur city.

“Members of our NGO saw a huge quantity of garbage flowing towards Sangrur. They videographed the incident and clicked photos. The authorities concerned were informed. However, no action has been taken against officials who ordered the release of water and did not get it cleaned first,” said Vikramdeep Singh Sidhu, president of Youth Power Group.

“The entire garbage of Dhuri city is stuck at different places. Authorities must have removed the garbage before releasing water in the canal. We would launch an agitation if the authorities concerned failed to clean the canal soon,” said Kulwant Singh, a farmer from Ladda village.

Sukhjit Singh, SDO, Irrigation, said water was released for a few hours to clean the canal following the directions of senior officials.