Blockage in sewer lines irks roadways employees

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 10

The frequent blockage of sewer lines has become a problem for the roadways staff at roadways workshop here . Workers complained that for the past two months, they had been approaching the officials concerned of the Municipal Corporation (MC) to provide a permanent solution to the problem, but to no avail.

It has resulted in spilling of sewage water in the surrounding areas. The roadways employees at depot one said, “They have been suffering from the menace for quite a long time, but no action has been initiated by the civic body to eradicate the problem.”

“Blocked sewerage is the biggest issue on the bus stand premises as sewerage lines remain choked most of the time, resulting in sewage overflow on roads. It emanates a foul smell. Earlier the same problem was at the entrance of gate number two, now at the warehouse,” said Baljit Singh, vice-president of the district Punjab Roadways.

The blocked sewer has also become a nuisance for the commuters as overflowing dirty water has been stinking badly. Moreover, terming the situation as very grim, which in turn reflecting poor sight, the regular discontented commuters, said, “ The sewer lines are choked and desilting has not been done from so many days. The sewage water back flows, flooding to roads, hence it’s a high time that the cleaning should be initiated.”

A fruit-vendor, Ramesh, who sometimes puts up his ‘Rehdi’ on the adjacent road said, now it had become a regular scene in the area, filthy water spilled all over the workshop ground equally poses a danger by becoming a den of mosquitoes and insects.”

“Due to the foul smell, he doesn’t prefer to set-up his ‘Rehdi’ near the adjacent wall of the roadways workshop,” he added.

Meanwhile, mending the chocked sewer seems to be a blame game between the roadways authorities and the Municipal Corporation (MC).

Junior Engineer, Subham Kumar and SDO Bhag Singh, said the roadways premises don’t fall under the MC territory.

Roadways GM Parneet Singh said, “The workshop’s sewer connects to the MC sewer, therefore they should act hastily to repair it. The main manhole of the sewer couldn’t be traced by the MC sanitation workers, hence the mess was existing for so long.”