Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Sanghera (Moga)
Though the district administration has claimed that there is no loss to crops and properties in villages, people of Sanghera and its adjoining villages have alleged that their fields and houses located inside the Dhusi bundh has been inundated.
Sanghera village sarpanch Balkar Singh along with other residents claimed that paddy nurseries, fodder and mint crops on more than 750 acres had been damaged in six villages. A vast stretch of cultivable field has been inundated. Apart from that, several houses and tubewells in the village have also submerged.“Senior officials of the administration inspect the banks of the Sutlej every year and issue statements of making adequate arrangements, but in reality people suffer every year during summers and monsoon when the river water increases,” a local said.
Meanwhile, Narinder Singh Dhaliwal, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Dharamkot, claimed that he had visited the Dhusi bundh and asked the revenue authorities to conduct ‘girdawari’ for losses, adding that no crop loss had been found in the affected areas.
Admitting that water has increased in the Sutlej river during the past few days, District Magistrate Sandeep Hans said the situation was not alarming. “The areas inside the bundh have been affected by the river water, which is quite normal during the summer and monsoon,” he said.
As per reports, the water level in the Sutlej has increased in the district due to rainfall in the catchments areas and excess release of water from the Bhakhra Dam and further Nangal and Ropar headworks. The Irrigation Department has said the Dhusi bundh had been strengthened in the last few years and there was no possible threat to it at the moment.
The residents of Sanghera village demanded that the government should construct a ring road with a height of 7 to 8 ft around the village, which would work as a bundh and keep the river water from entering the residential areas.
