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Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, September 4
Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Tuesday announced that the sludge carrier in the city would be repaired at a cost of Rs 80 lakh to resolve the waterlogging problem. The repair work would be carried out by the Bathinda Improvement Trust, though it is under the domain of Municipal Corporation of Bathinda and maintenance work is also done by the MCB only.
This sludge carrier was constructed in 1991 and due to poor maintenance of the carrier, its walls from both sides have gone weak. Its walls have started crumbling. Many portions have caved in at various places, which have led to a breach in the canal many times.
It will create more troubles if it rains more during this month as its walls are weak. The Municipal Corporation is carefully releasing the water into it as it cannot handle an excessive pressure of water.
Owing to the small capacity of the sludge carrier, many breaches on the carrier have been reported in the past and city residents have to face the problem especially during the rainy season.
In 2013, the Municipal Corporation decided to lay a parallel pipe of 48-inch diameter to enhance the capacity of the sludge carrier at a cost of Rs 17.20 crore, which carries the water treated at the sewage treatment plant (STP) and further empties it into fields. In 2015, Noida-based Triveni company was roped in, but it could lay only 4.8-km-long pipeline till date and at present, the work on this project has been stalled for some time due to the opposition from farmers regarding a land dispute.
Finance Minister Manpreet Badal has now announced to get the sludge carrier repaired, but this announcement has not gone down well with MCB Mayor Balwant Rai Nath. He claims that the MCB is fully competent to do all work, but the Finance Minister is deliberately insulting the elected representatives by giving works to the Bathinda Improvement Trust time and again.
It is pertinent to mention that earlier SAD leader and Mayor Balwant Rai Nath too had opened a front against Finance Minister Manpreet Badal when he diverted the funds to the Bathinda Improvement Trust to carry out development works in the city. The Mayor has alleged many times that since the change of party in the state, the MCB is not get sufficient funds from the state government as it was getting during the SAD-BJP regime.