Monsoon arrives, Irrigation Dept yet to take up Sukhna Choe cleaning in Zirakpur

Zirakpur, July 1

While monsoon has arrived in the tricity, the Punjab Irrigation Department is yet to begin the cleaning of the Sukhna Choe in Zirakpur.

The removal of waste, weed and desilting at vulnerable places has become a yearly affair since the choe began causing widespread damage and flooding in residential areas of Zirakpur.

The residents fear that a clogged river may lead to a flood-like situation like it did on August 23, 2020, when there was flooding in the low-lying areas of Zirakpur. Besides residential societies, police posts, marriage palaces, municipal parks, dairies and cremation grounds are situated in these areas.

Kulwant Singh, a resident of Baltana, recounts the ‘horrible morning that day when the garbage dumped alongside the choe at Chandigarh and Panchkula had entered residential areas in Zirakpur along with the rainwater. “The slum areas were inundated with shanties, beds, and furniture floating in the current. We had never seen such destruction in the choe earlier,” he said.

The Irrigation Department undertakes the cleaning of the choe every year before the monsoon season; however, this time the focus is on the incomplete bundh across the Ghaggar in Tiwana.

Dera Bassi, SDM Himanshu Gupta said the cleaning of Sukhna choe in Zirakpur would begin shortly.

The drainage department had notified the affected area of Baltana under the Canal and Drainage Act, 1873, and declared it a no-construction zone; however, illegal construction and encroachment along the canal have not been removed.

The Sukhna choe drains the excess water of the lake through Zirakpur and Bhankharpur to the Ghaggar.

On the Chandigarh side, the UT Engineering Department and the forest department take up the cleaning of choe before the rains. An estimated tender worth Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.5 crore was floated for this purpose last year.