Religious sect, locals come to aid of farmers

The increased water level in the Beas and Sutlej rivers has led to the erosion of riverbanks of the rivers at places and to prevent it, farmers and followers of the Sarhali-based Kar Seva sect have started work on strengthening the embankments of the Sutlej and Beas for the last two days.

As many as 40 villages along the Beas and Sutlej were under threat and thousand acres of standing crops are still submerged. These villages also faced the same fate in the year of 2023 and at that time, not only crops of farmers were lost but their land too was rendered uncultivable due to the accumulation of silt. The threat is still staring at the farmers.

Baba Sukha Singh, head of the sect, informed the farmers on the mobile phone that he is away to a foreign country and will cut short his tour and return to the country soon. He said the sect followers under the leadership of Baba Beera Singh have been working tirelessly to prevent the threat of the erosion of riverbanks.

Sabhra, Kot Budha, Dumniwala and Ghadunm were among the most-affected villages by the floods now. Jasbir Singh, former sarpanch of Sabhra village, said as many as 800 followers of the Kar Sewa sect and area farmers were busy in strengthening embankments with tractor-trolleys round the clock.

Navneet Singh, SDO (Irrigation), said the water level in the upstream and the downstream has decreased a little — from 98,000 cusecs to 95,000 and 75,000 cusecs to 72,000, respectively — here on Monday. A large number of youths from various villages are also working on a war footing to make the embankments strong.