Chabal residents troubled by waterlogging, drainage

Gurbaxpuri

Tarn Taran, September 27

People in the Chabal area have flayed the administration for its indifferent attitude in not making arrangements to drain out overflowing village ponds and rainwater from the drain passing through the area. As a result, waste water from the houses has been accumulating on roads and village streets for the last many years.

It is worth mentioning here that Chabal is not just a village but the central place among six villages with a population of more than 20,000. The six villages include Adda Chabal, Chabal Kham, Chabal Pukhta, Mannan Chabal, Swargapuri and Baba Langah. It is because of this that the Local Government Department was thinking in terms of replacing the panchayats of these villages with a Nagar Panchayat.

Devinder Sohal, Satpal Singh, Jaspal Singh, Pinder Pal Singh and other residents of the area said they have been regularly demanding making of arrangements to drain out waste water from the area into the drain passing through the area.

The residents expressed their resentment when waterlogging took place on the Tarn Taran-Chabal road near their village on Saturday after a mild spell of rain. The road is the main thoroughfare and remains busy. It is the lifeline of the area but waterlogging disturbs traffic on the road for days together. People from the area said that as the village ponds were overflowing, the foul smell emanating from it had made normal life miserable. Despite requests to the officials to make arrangement to drain out waste water, the complaint remained unaddressed.

Gurpreet Singh Gill, District Development and Panchayat Officer (DDPO), when informed that the whole of Chabal area had turned into a pool, pleaded ignorance saying he was not aware of the situation.