3 months on, collapsed sewage chambers face apathy
Crops damaged, industrial focal point, residential area inundated Raj Sadosh
Abohar, September 21
The district authorities have failed to notice the main sewage chambers that had collapsed near the rail line about three months back. The overflowed dirty water had inundated hundreds of acres of cotton fields, including industrial focal-point and colonies.
Former MP Virendra Kataria had provided Rs 6 lakh in 1998 to the Railways to let the main sewage pipe pass under the rail line but the main chambers located in between the boundary wall of Tara Estate and rail lines collapsed three months back.
Since then overflowing dirty water had not only accumulated near the rail line but also ravaged cotton crops, vegetables and other produce in hundreds of acres. It had inundated Ram Nagar, Sriganganagar Road and Industrial Focal Point, some part of the Nai Abadi, Kandhwala Road, Rajiv Nagar and Durga Nagari.
Vimal Thatai, a four-time councillor, said during the Lok Sabha elections, BJP and Akali leaders had made several promises to the people, including solving problems of sewage lines, but to no avail. They should have raised the issue with the Union Railway Minister.
“Even though the Punjab Government is accountable, it can’t intervene without the permission of the Ministry of Railways as the entire sewage line is in the Railway area,” he said.
Residents Hardeep Singh, Bhagirath, Krishan Kumar and Kuldeep Singh said about 3,500 people living in Ram Nagar had been facing a hell-like situation for the past three months. The Health Department has confirmed that 17 persons in the district were suffering from dengue and no steps had been taken to drain stagnant water that breeds mosquitoes. The Railway Engineering Department is not concerned about the threat that water poses to the rail lines.
Photo: The inundated agricultural land and residential colonies in Abohar. Tribune Photo
