Seechewal begins filling trenches in flood-hit Jania

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 24

After completing the work of plugging the breaches on the Dhussi bundh and the Sutlej, volunteers of Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal on Tuesday embarked upon a new project of refilling a 45-foot scoured pit created in a 100-acre stretch of land due to the flow of water at Jania village.

Seechewal said it was a Herculean task to further strengthen the newly constructed embankment. He said due to heavy flow of water during the flood this scoured pit was created at the point where the breach took place. He said the sand that had come along with the riverwater in the fields of farmers would be utilised to fill this scoured pit.

Seechewal and his team used 40 tractors at the site to accomplish the task. He created a social awakening on the issue asking farmers from adjoining districts to join in. Iqbal Singh, a farmer from Faridkot, got in his own tractors to help level the fields and fill various 5 feet-45 feet pits in flood-affected Jania village.

Seechewal said the work would be completed soon to ensure that fields of the farmers were free from sand and the embankment was further consolidated. Deputy Commissioner Varinder K Sharma expressed gratitude to Seechewal for extending support and cooperation to the administration in this noble cause.

Earlier, it was after massive efforts that the 500-foot-wide breach at Jania Chahal village was filled by the Indian Army, MNREGA workers, Drainage Department, contractor’s labourers, skilled mechanics, panchayats, volunteers from social and religious organisations, including Seechewal and others. The breach was plugged under the direct supervision of the Indian Army, which constructed a ring of boulders, besides parallel plugging the breaches with sandbags bundh.