Villagers oppose laying of pipe to Chandbhan

Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, Janaury 15

The Sewerage Board has expedited its work to lay the 20-km long pipeline passing through Adarsh Nagar, Sivian, Kothe Natheana, Mehma Sarkari and the agricultural fields of Ablu village to the Chandbhan drain to dispose of the sewer waste of around one dozen localities in the city, but villagers have raised objection and have announced not to allow the pipeline to pass through their village.

In 2017, the Sewerage Board had made a master plan to dispose of the sewage of some of the colonies into the Chandbhan drain.

It even started delivering and placing pipelines by the roadside of the adjoining villages to connect the sewage disposal system of Adarsh Nagar, Sucha Singh Nagar, Kheta Singh Basti and the new colonies into the Chandbhan drain, but Sivian villagers opposed the move after which the work on this was stopped.

However, now again, the Sewerage Board has restarted the work on the project and started laying pipeline from Bathinda to the Guru Gobind Singh highway.

Villagers are also alleged that the condition of present roads was bad and moreover digging of Lakhi Jangle road for laying pipeline would further affect the commuters.

A farmer leader from Sivian village, Amrik Singh, said the villagers would protest against the laying of sewerage pipeline since the village is already reeling under the pollution caused by a cement factory, fertilizer unit and a thermal plant, all of which are located nearby.

Amrik Singh said residents of the village were worried about the increasing number of cancer cases and the sewer pipeline would now add to their woes as it would pass underneath their fields and homes and in case of a leakage, would cause problems.

Kothe Natheane village sarpanch Bholi Kaur and former sarpanch Rajwinder Singh said they would not allow the pipe to pass from their village and they would stage a protest against this.

PWD XEN Inderjit Singh said the Sewerage Board had started digging of road after taking approval and submitting full fees.

Repeated attempts were made to connect Sewerage Board XEN Ashwani Kumar, but he remained unavailable for comments.