Just 11 of 483 village ponds cleaned in Muktsar dist this year

A village pond that is filled to the brim at Udekaran village in Muktsar district. Tribune photo

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, July 8

The authorities have neither cleaned nor dewatered the village ponds even though the district is hit by waterlogging and suffers huge losses during monsoon. This year just 11 of the total 483 village ponds have been cleaned in the district. Last year, nearly 120 village ponds were cleaned.

Recently, the residents of Udekaran village complained to the Deputy Commissioner that the authorities failed to drain the pond. They said with just one spell of showers, the pond has been filled to the brim. The village was hit by waterlogging for about a month in 2013.

Gurlabh Singh, sarpanch, Udekaran village, said, “If there is one more spell of rain in the next two-three days, the water from the pond will overflow and inundate the houses nearby.” He further alleged the project to lay drainage pipeline from village pond to Bura Gujjar drain had not taken off. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal sanctioned the project in 2013.

A senior official in the district administration admitted not just in Udekaran village, but several ponds in the district had filled to their capacity. “Usually, the village ponds are cleaned by the panchayats. But where the panchayats don’t have enough funds, the ponds are not cleaned,” he added. Repeated attempts to contact Naval Kumar, District Development and Panchayat Officer (DDPO), proved futile.

Courtesy: The Tribune