3 breaches in Ghaggar, 1 plugged

Parvesh Sharma

Sangrur, July 12

Despite tall claims of the Sangrur administration to have done enough to strengthen the embankments of the Ghaggar, three breaches in the river embankment flooded a number of villages in the Moonak area last night. The administration has plugged one breach, while the two others are getting widened with the passage of time.

Power supply to agri feeders cut

To prevent any mishap, the PSPCL authorities have disconnected the power supply to the agriculture feeders at Makraud Sahib, Ghumarghat, Phullad and Rampur villages after three breaches in the Ghaggar embankment. The electricity supply is, however, normal in residential areas.

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The water level in the river had gone up to 751.01 feet when breaches occurred in the embankment near Mandavi, Makraud Sahib and Phullad. The Mandavi breach was plugged within a few hours, but the remaining two seem to be a big challenge as arranging sand bags for both has become a big task.

At Phullad, the breach is around 100-foot wide and sand bags are being taken there via boats. At Makraud Sahib, the fast flow of water has made things tough.

“This time, the sanctioned funds were handed over to the officials concerned, but they misused the money and did not get the embankments strengthened. Earlier, the money was given to the panchayats and the sarpanches got the work done. The CM must order a high-level inquiry and take strict action against the erring officials,” said Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, former Union minister.

Lehra MLA Barinder Kumar Goyal, however, claimed that the strengthening and cleaning work was done properly. “The breach occurred when the water level was 751.01 feet. It’s the first time that the water level has risen to such a high level. Even today, the water level is 751 feet. There should be no politics over breaches,” he said.

Area residents said the river width was 588 feet between Khanauri and Makraud Sahib, but it reduces to only 190 feet between Makraud Sahib and Kadail. This led to breaches between Makraud Sahib and Kadail.

“For the past many days, we had been requesting the officials concerned to visit these embankments, but no one listened to us. If the water continues to rise, more breaches can occur,” said Rinku Moonak, BKU (Ugrahan) leader.