Residents of Ward No. 78 up in arms against drain silt lying unattended

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 15

Residents of Ward No. 78 of New Rattan Nagar here are up in arms against the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation as the main road leading to their locality is covered by silt of sewer drains and garbage.

Angry residents, including women, held a protest against the local civic body and raised slogans against the MCJ and the area councillor. Irked over the problem, the residents threatened to sit on a hunger strike outside the MCJ office if the problem was not solved in the near future.

“Commuters find it difficult to cross the area for the fear of slithering into the drainage and the filthy water spilled all over the kutcha road is equally posing a danger by becoming a den of mosquitoes and insects,” said Babloo Parsad, a local resident, while adding that the sewer silt that was taken out of nullah about a month ago had not been lifted yet.

“The sewer silt lying on the roadside has now got mixed with the rainwater accumulated on the streets and the dirty water has entered houses of residents, thus causing a lot of inconvenience to us,” said Parsad.

The residents said besides sewer silts even the heaps of solid garbage was lying unattended and there were no proper roads in the locality.

“We have been already facing a lot of problems due to the poor drainage system. However, the downpour that lashed the city in the past two days has worsened the condition,” said another resident.

“Despite our repeated requests, the authorities have failed to pay attention towards the issue,” the residents rued, adding that as no elite or upper-middle class family resides in the locality, the authorities concerned were least bothered.

As the street also leads to other localities and the main road, hence, people have no other option but to pass through the dirty dismantled street. Also, incidents of diseases such as dengue and malaria were also reported among the residents.

Another resident Kamaljit Singh said: “Many a times our clothes get dirty while driving over the silt from sewers and the foul smell was another big challenge for commuters.”

Jagdish Ram, councillor, Ward No. 78, said the work to lift the silt had already been started and would be finished in a day or two.

He said the silt from the ‘ganda nullah’ was not cleaned since the past three years and it was only 15 days ago he got the de-silting process of the sewer started when it was choking.

He said even a proposal for a road in the area had been passed and after the monsoons, the work would begin.