Villagers block sand trolleys in Kapurthala

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Kapurthala, January 14

Residents of 14 villages along the Beas today staged a dharna at Patti Safdalpur village and blocked the passage of eight trolleys that had come to load sand.

The villagers said though mining was allowed along 4 acres, they had done markings up to 10 acres along the riverbed and were digging up to 15-ft deep. They said they had held a protest earlier as well and the contractor had told them that they would work at the site only till December 25.

“They stopped working for eight days but came back again. The site where they are digging is just 600 ft away from dhussi bandh and just about 300 ft along a temporary bandh, which we constructed on our own for the safety of our crops two years ago. We pooled Rs 20 lakh and built this bandh at our own expense. Ever since we raised this additional bandh, our crops have remained safe,” said Labh Singh, a farmer.

The farmers who today lodged the protest were from Baaja, Patti Safdalpur, Hussainpur Durowal, Hussainpur Nurowal and Sujo Kalia villages. Swaran Singh Sujo Kalia, another farmer, said: “We are apprehensive that the damage the mining mafia is doing will change the course of the river and direct the water towards our villages. Farmers in 2,000 acres on this side, including ours, had bore the brunt in the 1988 floods. We do not want anything like that to happen again.”

He said: “It took us a long time and endless efforts to redirect the river for our safety. It is now that we have begun reaping the benefit of what we had been sowing. It took us so long to resettle after the devastation. But the mining mafia is damaging the riverbed to such an extent that all our efforts in the past will go waste. No one from the administration is coming to our rescue despite the fact that we made the announcement from the gurdwara about today’s protest.”

Kamaljit Singh, XEN, drainage, Kapurthala, said: “It is an approved mining khud. Still, we will get the area checked tomorrow and do the needful.”