Parched Changar villagers forced to migrate

Arun Sharma

Tribune News Service

Ananadpur Sahib, June 30

Hundreds of residents from over two dozen villages in the adjoining Changar area are forced to leave their houses with cattle every summer as even after 71 years of Independence, the state government has failed to provide them water.

Villagers of Paharpur, Samlah, Lakher, Kahiwal, Dhanera, Jindwari, Tapparian and Harwali said with the onset of summer every year, they had no option but to migrate along with their cattle nearly 10 km away to the banks of the Sutlej near Anandpur Sahib. They claimed that the successive governments ignored them. As ponds and wells in the area go dry during the summer months and drinking water supply by the government was not sufficient even for their household chores, they had to shift to other areas.

Charan Das (45), a resident of Lakher village who shifted near Agampur village, said he had been leaving his native place every summer since childhood. He said his grandfather used to tell him that then Chief Minister Giani Zail Singh was the first politician who visited their area and asked for their problems.

He said the locals had told him about drinking water problem, which was not solved even after almost 50 years of his visit.

Ratan Kumar, a farmer of Dhanera village, said the water supply department was supposed to supply water to them for two hours twice a day. They, however, were getting water for less than one hour every day and that also at low pressure. Many times due to technical reasons, water was not supplied for days together, he said.

“Our crops as well as availability of fodder depend on rain as there is no source of irrigation,” he added.

Raman, a shopkeeper at Harwali village, said the situation in his village was even worse as residents get water for not more than 30 minutes a day. At times it is supplied hardly for two or three days a week during summer months.

However, Water Supply and Sanitation Executive Engineer Michel Maman claimed that drinking water was being supplied every day as per schedule to these villages. The water supply gets affected only when there was power failure, he said.

Irrigation Department XEN Vijay Garg said a lift irrigation scheme had been started which would be completed in nine phases to provide water for the fields of these villages.