Flood-hit villagers write to PM Modi, Punjab CM for relief

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, July 24

“Azadi ton baad sadde ilake vich aa chukke han 8 har, sannu haran ton mukti dawao” (We have been hit by floods eight times post-independence, free us from the floods), read one of the many slogans on boards which farmers raised at the dhussi bundh at Gidderpindi —- in a demonstration held on Sunday to attract the attention of the Central and state governments.

Danger looms large

Agli musibat es ton vaddi aun vali Punjab te (the next crisis for Punjab will be bigger). We request the Centre and states to view the huge accumulation of silt from Harike to all across Sutlej and address it. Same is the case with Beas. Flooding in Beas also affects this area. The administration also failed in opening the floodgates from time to time.

Balkar Singh, Former Sarpanch of Qutbiwal village

With incessant floods ravaging at least 50 to 70 villages of Jalandhar and Kapurthala across Gidderpindi, Shahkot, Lohian and Sultanpur Lodhi, the residents of Gidderpindi have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Bagwant Mann, raising demands to desilt the rivers and strengthen bundhs to protect their areas from floods in the future.

Residents said it was the eighth time after Independence that their area had been battered by the floods.

Key demands raised by members of the Hark Roku Lok Committee and residents before the PM and CM include —- large-scale desilting of Sutlej and Beas rivers to bring down their level due to silt accumulation; strengthening of dhussi bundhs with stones and building of 22-22 feet wide roads atop the bundhs to prevent breaches and thirdly, raising the height of the Gidderpindi railway bridge, silt deposits in whose girders caused large-scale destruction from floods over the years.

Residents also demanded that the PM and CM send teams of empathetic officials to look into the damage caused by floods from the Harike headworks to Phillaur.

Elderly residents and members of the Har Roku Lok Committee (People’s Committee for Flood Prevention) stood atop the bundh on Sunday with slogans reading, “Sannu ration di nahi, haran ton mukti di lor hai” (We don’t need ration, we need freedom from floods); “Sade banna nu ucche, chaure, ate patthar lake pakke karo” (make our bundhs high, wide and strong with stones); “Madad karo ral yukt banavo, sannu haran to mukt karao” (Gelp us, devise us a plan, free us from the floods”); “Goindwal ton lai ke Phillaur tak, sade bannan nu pakka karo” (Strenghten our bundhs from Goindwal to Phillaur).