‘Little’ govt help, Punjab villagers pitch in to plug breaches

‘Little’ govt help, Punjab villagers pitch in to plug breaches

Chandigarh: Over 10 breaches in embankments along the flooded Sutlej and Beas in Doaba have been plugged with public effort mainly. Even the strengthening of bundhs is being undertaken by people themselves with Drainage Department employees allegedly failing to perform their duty.

There were seven breaches in Jalandhar, including those in Phillaur and Shahkot, and three in Hoshiarpur. In Sultanpur Lodhi, long stretches of embankments (bundhs) gave away. At all these places, people brought in trailers loaded with sand, filled up sacks and then used tractors and poclain machines for compaction.

Environmentalist and MP Balbir Singh Seechewal and hundreds of volunteers started the movement. They managed to plug a 300-foot breach in five days. Though officials maintained that the breaches would be plugged once the water level receded, villagers were not convinced. They chose to take the task upon themselves.

Leaders of religious places also joined in with their workforce as did Baba Sukha Singh of Sarhali. Since the marooned villagers did not get any help in plugging a breach in a bundh in Sultanpur Lodhi, volunteers with the support of local MLA Rana Inder Partap Singh pitched in for the work.

With more experience and ideation, several villagers became expert in the job. As more machinery was required to speed up the job, Seechewal purchased a Rs 51-lakh poclain machine using donations and by taking loans, MP Harbhajan Singh contributed Rs 11.5 lakh for buying a 4×4 tractor. Further, MLA Rana Inder Partap got readied huge bags with a capacity of carrying 10 tonnes of sand. These were placed with JCB machines in water, thus speeding up the work.

In Nawanshahr, too, it is largely villagers who have been plugging breaches at Mirzapur and Hussainpur villages. AAP leader from Sultanpur Lodhi Sajjan S Cheema admits that villagers themselves strengthened the dhussi bundh at several locations. “We did provide some MGNREGA workers, but it was more of a mass movement,” he said.

Irrigation Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said, “All my teams are working 24×7 on ground zero. We provided 1.09 lakh bags, 300 crates and 50 tippers in Jalandhar. We have already placed 10,000 bags at the Mehtabpur breach site in Mukerian. Our trucks and trolleys have been deployed in Nawanshahr. Our teams are also supervising dams and giving hourly inflow and outflow details.”