Jalandhar residents protest dirty water supply, overflowing sewage

Jalandhar, June 18

Slamming the state government and the civic authorities over overflowing sewage and contaminated water supply, residents of Shivaji Nagar lodged a two-hour protest outside the Municipal Corporation office here today.

The issue assumed importance as the locality falls in the Jalandhar West Assembly area, which is going for bypoll on July 10.

Decide to boycott byelections

Shivaji Nagar residents said their lives had been affected, but the authorities appeared to be indifferent despite lodging protests at different levels. The residents said they had decided to boycott the elections and would not let the leaders of the ruling party in the state or the Centre enter their locality to seek votes.

The residents were led by Congress leaders, including Deputy Mayor Surinder Kaur and Ashwani Jhangral. Both are aspirants for ticket from the Congress, which is yet to announce its candidate. Around 75 residents from the area reached the site and blocked traffic at Company Chowk to lodge protest.

The residents said their lives had been affected, but the authorities appeared to be indifferent despite lodging protests at different levels. The residents said they had decided to boycott the elections and would not let the leaders of the ruling party in the state or the Centre enter their locality to seek votes.

Ashwani Jhangral said he had been asking the Municipal Corporation to at least send a suction machine so that overflowing sewage could be handled for the time being. “All water supply pipes in the area need to be replaced as these have become rotten and sewage gets mixed with water and flows down the taps,” he said.

The residents have been complaining of frequent stomach ailments. Just hours after the protest, BJP candidate from the area Sheetal Angural went live on Facebook. He put a video wherein he said as soon as he heard about the problem of the residents, he approached MC officials and urged them to immediately send the required machinery and experts to fix the problem.