Sewerage overflow plagues residents of Sector 12 in Panipat

Residents of Sector 12 here have been grappling with choked sewer lines for long.

Sectors 11 and 12, the oldest sectors in the "textile city", were carved out by the Haryana Shahri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) (earlier HUDA) in 1989-1990. But, Sector 12 residents have been forced to face problems due to the alleged apathy of the HSVP officials for many years. The sewer lines were laid in Sector 12 at the time of habitation.Here, the HSVP has not released any tender for the cleaning of the sewer line for the past over 10 years.

These days, residents are fed up with the overflowing of many sewers in the sector. The residents alleged that they had raised their voice on several platforms in the HSVP and the MC, including with the sitting MLA, but no one heeded to their problem.

The matter was raised by residents at the Samadhan Shivir during the BJP government’s last tenure, but no step has been taken to resolve residents’ problems.

Virender Soni, a resident, said the HSVP (earlier HUDA) had laid the sewer line around 34 years ago as per the load that time, but with the passage of time, the old sewer line has got overloaded.

The sewer line has become redundant due to its size and capacity as the population in the sector has increased. The HSVP has not even released any tender for cleaning the sludge from the sewage line for over 10 years, he said.

Apart from it, the residents were forced to go from one office to another as the sector’s storm water disposal was being maintained by the Municipal Corporation (MC), while the sewage and potable water supply is being maintained by the HSVP. The HSVP didn’t heed to the residents' problems, Soni said.

Mahender Nath Bhutani, another resident, said the sewerage overflowing is not a new problem for the residents, but was a long-pending issue. We have raised this issue not only with officials of the HSVP but with the former MC, sitting MLA Pramod Vij, but no solution has been found so far.

Meanwhile, over 50 per cent of the saplings at a park here have got damaged. Sewerage also got into the water-harvesting system which badly contaminated the groundwater, Bhutani alleged.

Officials in the HSVP have connivance with the tanker mafia, as they cleaned a particular portion of the sewer lines by flushing out water with tankers only after getting complaints, Bhutani alleged.

Pradeep Sharma, another resident, said Sector 12 was in utter neglect due to officials’ apathy.

“I raised the issue of choking of storm water line and sewage lines of Sector 12 at the Samadhan Shivir in August month last year, but no step has been initiated by the district administration as well as by the departments concerned HSVP and the MC so far,” said Kuldeep Sharma.

He further said that the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) pipeline of 1800mm was laid in 1996-97 by the government connecting to the sewerage treatment plant (STP) at Sewah village for the disposal of the wastewater of the city. But, this pipeline was never cleaned in the last 27 years due to which sludge deposited into it and it got badly choked with sludge. It is working only under the capacity to the tune of 25 per cent only.

Now, I would raise this issue before Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini so that the residents get some concrete solution to this permanent problem, Sharma added.