Sewage works in limbo, leaders face public ire

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Batala, January 11

Petty politicking among Congress leaders and between the ruling party and the BJP-managed Municipal Committee (MC) is hindering the growth of the city, especially with regard to sewerage and sanitation facilities.

The situation is so grim that former Congress MLA Ashwani Sekhri, who is blaming Cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and MC Executive Officer (EO) Bhupinder Singh, has decided to file a PIL in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

“I have instructed my lawyers to prepare a PIL because I have to face the wrath of locals everyday. MP Sunil Jakhar too faced a similar predicament on Thursday when angry residents of Dharampura colony questioned him what he had done as a parliamentarian. Minister Bajwa is complicating matters by interfering in the affairs of the town. The EO listens only to Bajwa,” said a livid Sekhri.

Bajwa, however, denied the allegations. “The EO is an appointee of the government, not mine,” he said.

In 2012, 42 persons (21 officially) had died when a bout of gastroenteritis hit Gandhi Colony, one of the biggest slums of Batala. The town is facing a similar situation now. The MC and the Sewerage Board are allegedly doing nothing to clean the choked sewage pipes, particularly on the 600-meter stretch of road from Qadian Chowk till Dharampura Colony where hundreds of families live.