Drainage water a bane for Fateh Jalal villagers

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 28

A delegation of activists of the Pendu Mazdoor Union has demanded from the Deputy Commissioner (DC) to allocate residential plots to the residents of Fateh Jalal village whose houses are being flooded with dirty drainage water.

SDM-2 Varinderpal Singh Bajwa assured action to residents on the complaint after the delegation submitted the complaint to him at the DC office. Union district secretary Kashmir Singh Ghugshore said some persons in the village had allowed 25 landless labourers to live in the said panchayat land by setting up jhuggis. They said while these families were voting for the past 40 years, in return no social facility was being provided to them. They alleged that on demanding residential plots, the drainage water of the village was deliberately being routed towards their homes.

They said diseases caused by the dirty water had already claimed the lives of some children in the village. They said while in July 2016, a three-year-old had died, after agitation on the issue then ADC (Development) Jalandhar Girish Dayalan had asked the BDPOs to allocate plots to labourers in Fatehjalal and other neighbouring villages within a week.

He said it had been over a year since a panchayati resolution had been passed in the gram sabha regarding the allocation of 5-marla plots to the landless in Fateh Jalal village, but so far there had been no action regarding the matter.

They said the water coming in jhuggis was making their lives more difficult and posing the danger of diseases to them.

The delegation members said the administration would be responsible for any loss of life and property in the village due to the issue.