Rising water level in Beas, Sutlej posing threat to Marad village

The rising water level in the Beas and Sutlej rivers is becoming a threat for the existence of Marar village located in the Mand area. The village is situated near the bank of Beas river adjacent to Harike town. Bihar Singh, Sarpanch of the village, said after the rise of water level, the Beas river is flowing quite near the houses in the village, causing land erosion and damaging other buildings in the area.

The Sarpanch said that the followers of Kar Sewa sect, Sarhali, led by Baba Sukha Singh, Baba Jagtar Singh of Tarn Taran and Baba Avtar Singh Sursingh besides state government employees were working hard to strengthen the embankments of the river for the last five days.

In view of the seriousness of the situation, leaders of the ruling AAP including Manish Sisodia, Cabinet Ministers Laljit Singh Bhullar, Harbhajan Singh ETO, Aman Arora and others have visited Marar village during the last few days.

Sarpanch Bohar Singh said that despite the efforts made by farmers of the area, the situation has not improved as the material sent to strengthen the river bank slipped from the site and got swept away. The Sarpanch said that he has brought the matter to the notice of officials concerned. The department was just providing them with empty gunny bags and crates only, he said. Officials of the Irrigation Department said 3.22 lakh cusecs of water was flowing downstream from the Harike Headworks on Thursday while it was 3.30 lakh cusecs on Wednesday .

Officials requesting anonymity said that the river has a capacity for just one lakh cusecs of water to flow in routine conditions and the flow above this limit may be considered as a warning to the area residents. There were many other spots alongside the Beas-Sutlej rivers at Sabhra, Kuliwala, Kirian, Gharunm etc where the river bank was supposedly weak and there was likelihood of a breach taking place any time. Tarn Taran Deputy Commissioner Rahul and other officials remained tight-lipped and refrained from giving give any information on the flood situation in spite of repeated attempts.