Desilting of Buddha Nullah delayed in Ludhiana

With monsoon only a couple of months away, the Ludhiana municipal corporation has yet to start desilting of Buddha Nullah. Desilting of the nullah is conducted every year, usually beginning April, to avoid flooding during the monsoon.

When not desilted, nullah is unable to contain the water, which overflows at different points and enters houses of residents living in the stream’s periphery. Residents of New Kundanpuri and Upkar Nagar are affected almost every year, with clogging of internal drains.

DRAINAGE DEPARTMENT NOT PAID

The civic body assigns the desilting work to the drainage department, as it lacks dragline excavators, a machine required for the process.

An MC official, requesting anonymity, said the drainage department had asked MC to submit ₹80 lakh to begin the desilting exercise. “The payment has yet to be made. MC had allocated ₹2 crore for desilting of Buddha Nullah in the 2019-20 budget,” he said.

However, MC commissioner Kanwalpreet Kaur Brar said, “The civic body had planned to purchase the necessary machinery to carry out desilting itself, but the process got delayed due to the lockdown. The drainage department submitted the estimate to do the job on Thursday. The payment will be made soon.”

Ratan Singh, a resident of New Kundanpuri, said the nullah overflowed almost every year in the monsoon, pushing dirty water into multiple houses. Despite repeated requests to the MC, it delays desilting work every year, he claimed.

“The factories along the nullah were closed when the lockdown was announced on March 24. The waste from these factories is not being discharged into the drain and the water level has also reduced. MC should make most of this situation and start the desilting exercise at the earliest. It also needs to strengthen the banks of the nullah before the rainy season to avoid flooding,” Singh said.