Anil Vij inspects digging work in Tangri river bed

Nitish Sharma

Tribune News Service

Ambala, July 31

Cabinet Minister Anil Vij today inspected the work of digging and widening the Tangri river bed and expressed his dissatisfaction with the progress.

Tangri is a seasonal river and over 1,700 families reside in the river bed. They fear floods during monsoon.

Vij said, “Following a ban on mining, the level of the river bed has gone up. To save the people from flood fury, the irrigation department was asked to remove the sand and dig and widen in the river bed. The depth looks fine, but the width of the passage is not sufficient. The officials have been asked to double it.”

The officials told Vij that the process of notifying the river area had been initiated.

Earlier in the day, while attending a seminar of the Indian Society for Assisted Reproduction, the minister assured the private medical practitioners that he would raise the issue of amendments to the PNDT Act with the Union Health Minister, if the need be.

During the seminar, the private practitioners and radiologists from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Punjab expressed their concern over the issues being faced by them in the implementation of the PNDT Act. They said they were pressured and sometimes the officials made a big issue over a minor clerical mistake.

“The sex ratio in the state was poor, but due to the efforts made by the government and private organisations, it has improved from 834 to 905. Besides, the infant mortality rate has come down from 41 to 35, which is a big success,” he added.