Rights panel seeks report on poor sanitation at SBS Nagar

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, December 6

The Punjab Human Rights Commission (PHRC) has come to the rescue of residents of the 475-acre Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar colony developed by Ludhiana Improvement Trust on Pakhowal Road here. These people have been living in miserable conditions due to poor sanitation.

In the orders issued on the complaint filed by Arvind Sharma, a resident of the E Block of the colony, the PHRC said, “The commission deems it appropriate to send a copy of the complaint to the Deputy Commissioner and the Ludhiana Improvement Trust to dispose of the (aforesaid) complaint at their end, in accordance with law.”

The orders issued on November 6, 2018, by Justices Iqbal Ahmed Ansari (chairperson) and Ashutosh Mohunta (member) directed the respondents to send an action taken report to the commission before the next date of hearing (on December 20, 2018), whereupon further action, if any required, will be taken by the commission.

In his complaint filed with the PHRC on March 31, 2018, Arvind Sharma had alleged that the Ludhiana Improvement Trust authorities were being indifferent towards poor sanitation in the colony and residents were forced to live in miserable conditions with the risk of several health hazards.

“The roads and streets are hardly ever swept and when they are, heaps of garbage are being dumped either along the streets or at vacant sites in the colony near residential areas. The sanitation contractor deploys inadequate number of safai workers and there is no mechanism in place for the disposal of garbage which is dumped at the discretion of the sanitation staff much to the annoyance of the residents. To make matters worse, the roads and streets in the colony are in a pathetic condition,” the complainant had said.