Despite rush, Sultanpur Lodhi shines bright

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Sultanpur Lodhi, November 2

People in the state, including those residing in the vicinity of the historic town, might have forgotten the teachings of Guru Nanak that focussed on concern for environment as they continued to burn stubble, but Guru’s teachings on conserving environment are being followed in letter and spirit in this small town.

Even as smog emerging from farm fires in the vicinity of the town enveloped the sky, locals as well as devotees, who thronged the town on the second day of the celebrations, are ensuring that the town wears a spic-and-span look, albeit with help by Capt Amarinder Singh government.

In spite of huge rush of pilgrims, one cannot find any litter on the roads. With the town’s total waste generation is expected to increase from a daily average of 2.50 tonnes to 70 tonnes during these two week of festivities, the Local Bodies Department has created bigger landfills, installed baling machines to segregate waste before its disposal and made 200 new composting pits for waste generated from 70 langar sites here.

Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra said he requisitioned electric rehris to transport waste from town to the disposal sites and 4,500 people had been hired for round-the-clock sweeping of the town. Amidst controversy created over food waste from SGPC-sponsored langars being discarded in the holy Bein that flows near Gurdwara Ber Sahib, officials in the district administration said the matter had been taken up with the SGPC. “We have installed motors at sewerage treatment plant, where only treated water is being pumped out. Since volume of waste had increased, two separate chambers have been created where treated water is first kept and it is then pumped out in the Bein,” said an official of the Local Government Department.

While the town is all spruced up, the administration seems to find it difficult to stop air pollution caused by stubble-burning in nearby Kapurthala and Jalandhar cities. As farm fires continued to rise ( as many as 1,908 farm fire incidents were reported till last night), the administration seems unwilling to get into any confrontation with farmers over the issue. Though DC DPS Kharbanda said 40 teams of officials were designated to stop stubble-burning, only two challans had been issued to defaulters.