Awareness rally against dumping of garbage in Sidhwan Canal in Ludhiana

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, February 26

With the objective of spreading awareness among the people and to motivate them not to dump waste in the Sidhwan Canal, the Municipal Corporation (MC), in association with the Punjab Jeep Club, organised an awareness rally ‘Sunday City Gehri’ on Sunday for saving the canal from garbage and pollution.

The jeep rally was flagged off by Ludhiana West MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi and around 100 vehicles were part of the awareness rally. Special arrangements were made and traffic police were also deployed at different points to avoid jams during the rally.

Starting from Chahar Toll plaza on Laddowal bypass, the jeep rally covered the entire area on both sides of the canal within the city limits till Lohara canal bridge. “Announcements were also made by MC staffers to make an appeal to the residents to stop dumping waste in the canal and keep the water body clean. The MC has started imposing heavy penalty on those caught dumping waste material in the canal,” the residents were told.

MC Zonal Commissioner Jasdev Singh Sekhon stated that the MC had cleaned a major portion of the canal in the recent past. Working on the directions of MC Commissioner Dr Shena Aggarwal, awareness drives were now being held to stop the residents from dumping waste in the canal. Hefty challans of up to Rs 5,000 are also being issued to the violators and over 230 residents had already been penalised for dumping waste in the canal. MC teams were deployed for surveillance and FIRs were also being recommended against the violators.

Gogi said the government was committed to maintain cleanliness of the water bodies across the state. Now that the civic body had cleaned up the major portion of the canal within city limits, it had also become the responsibility of the residents to support the authorities and stop dumping waste in the canal. More awareness drives will be organised in the coming time, he said.