Stagnant water in Chabal irks residents

Gurbaxpuri

Tarn Taran, July 6

Knee-deep stagnant water on the 300 metre stretch of the Tarn Taran road in Chabal since last week is inconveniencing area residents and commuters. The road is a lifeline for more than 25,000 population of Chabal Adda, Chabal Pukhta, Jhabal Khaam, Chabal Mannan and Swaragapuri. It is the busiest road in the border belt from where countless commuters pass every now and then.

There is a well-attended private school on the road where stagnant water troubles students, especially girls, and the staff.

Shamsher Singh, Baljit Singh, Bakhshish Singh and other shopkeepers running their business from the roadside said on Saturday that the road would remain inundated in the coming two months of the rainy season. Shopkeepers said they had been facing the problem from 2011 onwards since the construction of the road as engineers supervising the project did not keep proper level of the stretch here. They said the level of the stretch here was lower than the rest of the road. They said there were no proper arrangements to drain water from the road. They said despite approaching the local MLA and officials concerned several times, their pleas to resolve the water stagnation issue had fallen on deaf ears.

CPI leader Devinder Sohal, a resident of Jhabal, said all roads, paths, streets and other areas around Chabal were inundated. He said village ponds had not been desilted for a long time. He said water from ponds overflowed on roads and streets during the monsoon season. There were no arrangements to drain rainwater to a nearby canal, he added.

When contacted, Varinderjpal Singh Bajwa, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development), said he would instruct the Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO) to solve the issue immediately.