11 months on, demarcation of Saraswati still incomplete

Nitish Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, November 23

Eleven months have passed, but the demarcation of the Saraswati in Thanesar to identify the encroachments has not been completed.

To increase the water carrying capacity of the river and identify the encroachments after several colonies of Thanesar witnessed a flood-like situation in July last year, due to incessant rain and overflowing of water from the Saraswati and other drains, the district administration and the Irrigation and Water Resources Department had decided to carry out a survey of the colonies developed along the river.

From Pipli to the SYL canal, the length of the Saraswati is 70,000 feet. While the width in the Pipli area is 65 feet, it reduces to 15 to 30 feet towards the city area due to the development of colonies. This has badly affected the natural flow of the river.

Work to begin in phases

We want to develop the Saraswati channel in Pipli as a tourist destination, under which a stretch of 500 m will be developed in the first phase. —Dhuman S Kirmach, Deputy Chairman,  HSHDB

An official of the Irrigation Department said the water carrying capacity of the Saraswati was merely 200 cusecs, while the river had been receiving over 1,000 cusecs in July last year. The riverbed must be at least 70 feet wide for a smooth flow.

Dhuman Singh Kirmach, deputy chairman of the Haryana Saraswati Heritage Development Board (HSHDB), has directed the irrigation officials to complete the demarcation work and prepare a report about the encroachments that have affected the flow of water.

Kirmach said, “The demarcation work is on and the encroachments are being identified. I have visited the area from Pipli to Jyotisar and the work till Kheri Markanda village has been completed. We want to start evening aarti.”

He said, “Besides building a temple of Goddess Saraswati, and carrying beautification work on both sides of the bridge, we have proposed to start boating, for which the river will be widened. The cleaning work of the channel has been initiated and ghats are also being developed.