
Officials of the Panchkula and Zirakpur civic bodies during their visit to Peer Muchalla on Sunday. - TRIBUNE PHOTO: NITIN MITTAL
Mohali, July 30
A joint team of the Zirakpur Municipal Council and the Panchkula Municipal Corporation today visited Peer Muchalla and discussed the problem of waterlogging.
After the Peer Muchalla area was flooded repeatedly with rainwater entering houses and basements of housing societies during the past one month, residents started holding protests against the Punjab and Haryana governments for not resolving the issue.
Residents complain that excess rainwater from Sectors 20 and 21 in Panchkula was diverted towards Peer Muchalla, leading to a difficult situation for its residents.
Dera Bassi SDM Himanshu Gupta said, "The matter was taken up with Mohali Deputy Commissioner Aashika Jain, who further wrote to the Panchkula Municipal Corporation officials following which a joint visit was made to Peer Muchalla by the Zirakpur and Panchkula MC officials today."
The visiting team met local residents and visited the areas where rainwater enters Peer Muchalla. Residents said a permanent solution should be found to prevent flooding in the area.
On July 25, Shiv Kumar (29), a resident of Bliss Avenue, Peer Muchalla, was electrocuted as he tried to remove his scooty from near a panel of electricity meters in a waterlogged parking lot. Hearing his shrieks, neighbours rushed to rescue him, but couldn’t do anything as they realised current was running in the waterlogged parking. The power supply had to be switched off to bring out the body.
Deputy Commissioner Aashika Jain said, “The pipeline on the border of the district is causing a major trouble by flooding a vacant plot of the MC, Zirakpur, which has taken the shape of a pond. Moreover, the water also entered Peer Muchhalla localities. As a temporary measure, the course of water from the pond has been diverted to Ghaggar, besides strengthening the embankment of the pond to prevent the water from entering localities. The Executive Engineer of the MC, Panchkula, has sought a time of 48 hours to fix the problem.”