Dera Baba Nanak chosen for Seechewal model

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, September 6

The state government has chosen Dera Baba Nanak to implement the Seechewal model, meant to clean ponds and subsequently irrigate agricultural fields.

The project will be executed in all 254 villages and in the ongoing first phase, Rs 29.13 crore has been sanctioned for 180 hamlets. Later, the model will be implemented in all the villages of Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts.

Already, of the 180 villages, 101 have implemented the system, which also goes by the name of Thapar model. Funds have been provided by various agencies of the state and Central governments, like the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, Finance Commission, Smart Village Project and MGNREGA. Each village has been allocated grants between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 25 lakh. The model is a water treatment project in which sewage water is purified and later used for irrigation. The model was upgraded by Thapar University, Patiala.

Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Cabinet minister and Dera Baba Nanak MLA, is personally supervising the execution of the project. “It envisages the collection of sewage water into a pond where a wire meshing is used to filter objects flowing in the water. After that, the polluted water is taken into two wells where silt and other extraneous material are taken away before it flows to the third well, where it is cleaned with sun rays,” he said. “All 254 villages will have a new pond cleaning system by the year-end,” said DC Mohammad Ishfaq.