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Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Gurdaspur, December 5
Residents of 90 odd villages stretching across the Assembly segments of Dinanagar, Qadian and Gurdaspur are blaming the ruling SAD-BJP government for not solving the problem of water logging.
Villagers say they have to live on just one crop a year which is not sufficient to eke a decent living.
Darshan Singh, former sarpanch of Chinna Bet village, said he sent petitions to the administration many times to clean the drains which remain full of weeds but to no avail.
“The problem can be solved to a certain extent if the drains are cleaned. My combine got stuck in the fields while harvesting paddy as the earth was too soggy. Officials always excuse themselves citing lack of funds,” he said.
Villagers generally form different groups owning allegiance to different political parties. However, this year they have decided to come on a single platform.
Dalbir Chand, sarpanch of Pakhowal Kullian, curses his destiny as he points towards his fields. “For me an election serves no purpose. Politicians are people who have mastered the art of building a bridge where no river exists. During the 2007 and 2012 elections, we were promised that the problem will be solved. For ten years we waited. Nothing happened. Now we will not be casting our vote in favour of the SAD,” he said.
Dinanagar MLA Aruna Chaudhury of the Congress said earlier she used to discuss the matter regularly with the drainage officials.
“Now I have stopped approaching the administration because nobody is keen to look into the problem. One crop a year means villagers have to take loans at exorbitant rates of interest from money lenders. Like excess water, the extremely high interest rates too are stifling the lives of the poor villagers,” she said.
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