Despite funds, villages lack drainage system, sanitation
Ajay Joshi
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, September 9
The crippled drainage system and poor sanitation are one of the biggest issues in various villages across the district, but to no avail. Like every year, this year too, a grant of Rs 63.03 crore was provided under various schemes for the development of drainage systems in the villages. However, the funds which were meant to improve residents’ lives could not serve its purpose.
Notably, the unavailaibility of proper drainage systems has been the core issue of residents of villages in the panchayat, zila parishad and state Assembly elections.
Agreeing to the absence of adequate drainage systems in almost every household of these villages, District Development Programme Officer (DDPO) Iqbaljit Singh said the department gets grievances in connection with open drainage every now and then.
Residents register their complaints either with block development programme officers or village sarpanches. From the beginning of this year, a whopping Rs 63.03 crore has been allotted for the development of drainages and sewerages. A sum of Rs 11.40 crore from the DDPO office, Rs 33.63 crore from the zila parishad and Rs 5 crore from the Additional Deputy Commissioner’s office was received this year for development-related works in the villages. Moreover, extra funds of Rs 13 crore was also collected from the land kept for common purposes or from land given on contract. The funds are further distributed among the 11 BDPOs of the district, who further disseminate the funds among the sarpanches of their blocks.
However, few of the sarpanches claimed that they had not received the funds yet and the residents have been suffering.
Yashpal Singh, sarpanch of Nahal village, located in the Jalandhar West constituency, said, neither he was contacted by the area BDPO nor he received any grant for the construction of sewerage and drainages. However, the area BDPO, Sukhbir Kaur, said she had received a total grant of Rs 2,84,97,200, for the development of drainages and MGNREGA.
Ooverflowing drains and sewers carved out right in front of the houses in the villages not only raise a stink but also have become the breeding ground for mosquitoes, causing malaria and chikungunya.
The residents said even after building pucca houses, the only thing that irks them was the unavailability of a proper drainage system to drain out dirty water from their houses. Meanwhile, ADC (development) Kulwant Singh said the utilisation of funds was completely dependent on the government at the panchayati raj level.
