Fifth breach in Ghaggar river keeps Sardulgarh town of Mansa on toes

The Ghaggar’s fury continued to keep Punjab’s Mansa district on tenterhooks with the river causing a fifth breach at Phus Mandi in Sardulgarh sub-division on Tuesday.

The breach, which happened around 5 am, has increased to over 150-foot wide. The Ghaggar is flowing at 24.6 feet, which is 3.6 feet above the danger mark.

After the breach, the floodwater moved towards Saduwala village and reached the periphery of Sardulgarh town, which is only 5 km from Phus Mandi. The water has reached the state highway which connects Sardulgarh with Sirsa. So far, temporary embankment is preventing the water from entering Sardulgarh town, but the locals are worried over how long it can prevent water from entering the town.

Mansa deputy commissioner Rishi Pal Singh said: “I’m at the spot and we are trying to plug the breach. As of now, water has reached the periphery of Sardulgarh. We are making efforts to plug the four other breaches, too.”

The district administration had managed to plug a small breach at Kalipur Dum village late on Monday. Sardulgarh sub-divisional magistrate Amrinder Singh Malhi said: “The sixth breach had taken place at Kalipur Dum but we plugged it before it became wider.”

So far, floodwaters have entered 20 villages of Budhladha, Jhunir and Sardulgarh blocks in Mansa and 10 villages have been inundated. People of the affected villages were shifted to relief camps on Tuesday.

On Saturday, the Ghaggar River’s embankments at Rorki village and near Chandpura Bundh in Budhlada sub-division gave way on the Punjab side. On Monday, two breaches occurred at Jhande Khurd village and Rorki village in Sardulgarh.

Delay in commencing plugging process

After a delay of more than 80 hours, army on Tuesday evening started the process to plug the 200-foot wide Chandpura Bundh breach. An army unit was deployed to plug the breaches on Sunday, but it has been waiting due to some administrative stand-off between Punjab and Haryana.

Chandpura is in Haryana but the place where the breach happened is on the inter-state border on the Punjab side. The issue of territorial jurisdiction and administrative reasons caused the delay in the start of the plugging process.

As per sources, the reason behind the delay in plugging the Chandpura breach was that the officials of Punjab and Haryana had failed to agree on terms. But now, the officials from both the states have given consent to start the plugging work at Chandpura after Punjab agreed to the conditions set by Haryana.

“After getting permission, army has started the process to plug the Chandpura breach,” said the Mansa DC.

Aam Aadmi Party working president and Budhladha MLA Budh Ram, confirming the development, said the district administration was making efforts to take permission from the Haryana government to start the plugging process. “The permission has been granted now. Earlier, the Haryana government had imposed Section 144 at the Chandpura Bundh and deployed police. Senior officials from Punjab had contacted the Haryana officials and asked them to either plug the breach or allow Punjab to do it,” he said.

“While giving permission, the Haryana government has put conditions that army will do the plugging work and if any private person is allowed at Chandpura Bundh they will stop the work. The conditions will be followed,” he added.

Army has brought technical equipment to plug the breach. Meanwhile, the district administration is arranging one lakh sandbags.