LIT colony residents lament poor infra, locked gates

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, August 20

As moderate rain that lashed the city for nearly an hour on Wednesday brought cheer to residents elsewhere, providing much needed relief from the hot and humid weather conditions, for those residing in Rajguru Nagar, a posh locality developed by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) on Ferozepur Road, the showers spelled misery. Rainwater-inundated roads and streets and took several hours to drain out water due to choked sewer lines and clogged road gullies.

The issues

Waterlogging is not the only problem that residents of the colony have to come to terms with but poor sanitation, wild growth in vacant areas and green belts, lack of spraying and fogging as a preventive measure against vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue, and on the top of it all, gates put up on public roads and streets — most of which remain closed even during the daytime, further add to their woes. Most of the residents allege that in the colony, being maintained by the LIT authorities, overall sanitation level leaves much to be desired.

Waterlogging is not the only problem that residents of the colony have to come to terms with but poor sanitation, wild growth in vacant areas and green belts, lack of spraying and fogging as a preventive measure against vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue, and on the top of it all, gates put up on public roads and streets — most of which remain closed even during the daytime, further add to their woes.

Most of the residents allege that in the colony, being maintained by the LIT authorities, overall sanitation level leaves much to be desired.

“Streets and roads are swept sparingly, if at all, garbage is left heaped along the roads and streets. And coupled with stagnating water when it rains; the dirty environs pose a huge health hazard to residents,” they said.

As if all this was not enough, the recently carpeted roads in the colony have become yet another nuisance, say the residents. Layer of premix has been laid on the existing surface without digging up the damaged top coat with the result that level of the roads has gone up and in the absence of proper drainage, rainwater accumulates on all roads, and even enters houses, parks and other areas.

Residents said the most irksome issue was gates installed on several public roads and streets in the colony. They assert that though the matter had been raised with LIT officials, the district administration and even with the police, they have not got any relief or response from any quarter. “The movement of residents of a public colony could not be controlled or checked by any means as it is against national and international law,” they said.

Most residents pointed out that the gate number 2 put up on main road of the B-block remained permanently closed as a self-styled political leader always stood in the way whenever the LIT officials made any attempts to enforce the rules. It was learnt that the police had also initiated a probe after a complaint was filed by the residents with the Deputy Commissioner, but they were still to prepare their final report for submission to the authorities.

LIT officials also said they were looking into all civic issues being faced by residents and appropriate action would be taken to address the problems.