MC plans to start desilting of ponds

Sukhmeet Bhasin

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Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 3

To increase their capacity ahead of the monsoon season, the Municipal Corporation (MC) has been planning to start desilting of ponds situated near DAV College and Sanjay Nagar.

Two agenda items on desilting will be tabled before the House during the next General House meeting to be held on June 6.

According to the proposal made by officials, an amount of Rs 16.15 lakh will be spend on the Sanjay Nagar pond for its desilting and Rs 14.99 lakh on the DAV college pond.

It is for first time that only two agenda items will be tabled at the General House meeting. The reason behind it is that the state government has allocated Rs 16 crore for development works to the Bathinda Improvement Trust through the Deputy Commissioner.

Now, the meeting has been convened to get approval for carrying out urgent works ahead of monsoon so the waterlogging problem in the city can be resolved.

As after every spell of rain, the city faces the waterlogging problem.

In the past some years, land of ponds has been encroached upon by the ‘land mafia’ due to which its capacity has reduced.

Earlier, the rainwater was made to flow into the ponds and later it released into the sullage carrier. But with its capacity shrinking, the rainwater was also channelised into the sullage carrier, leading to breaches at many times in the past two years.

Experts have suggested that the only way to dispose of rainwater is to increase the capacity of ponds.

Last year, the MC had to face embarrassment as city roads remained submerged in rainwater for three to four days.

Recently, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal had also convened a meeting with MC officials and instructed them to take precautionary measures ahead of the rainy season.