Irked over delay, SBS Nagar residents start construction of street on their own

With the panchayat allegedly dilly-dallying on the construction of the potholed street number 2 of Block-B of Shaheed Bhagat Singh (SBS) Nagar on the Dugri-Dhandra Road for the past three years, residents commenced the work of laying interlocking tiles in the street on Tuesday on their own expense.

The residents are aiming to complete the work before monsoon hits the city in July.

Under this project, the street (18 feet wide and 650 feet long) would be developed by residents at an estimated cost of Rs 8.5 lakh. The residents have come under the banner of the NGO, Samaj Sewa Society, to accomplish the task.

Residents said water-sewer pipelines were laid in their area around three years ago, but the panchayat failed to reconstruct the street, which was dug up for the purpose, since then. Due to this, accidents take place on the potholed street and students have to move through mud on their way to schools during the monsoon season.

Leading residents, Sanjay Tiwari said, “The panchayat has been delaying the project due to which around two dozen families living in the street have decided to take up the work by themselves. We want to construct the street before monsoon hits the city. Before starting the project, we also got a resolution approved from the panchayat. The work was commenced on Tuesday and it is expected the work will be completed by June-end.”

Another resident, Raghubir Singh, said, “A pacca road was never developed in the area since the time this area was developed around 18 years ago and only sand was poured in the street, which is a portion of the road. Due to

installation of water-sewer lines, potholes had developed. but the panchayat paid no heed to the problem, despite several complaints. Even now the panchayat members were making excuses due to which the residents decided to take up the project by themselves.”

Congress sarpanch, Kiran Mohan, however, refuted the allegations and said a few residents are trying to get political mileage out of the situation.

He said, “The panchayat is already constructing two streets in the same locality and residents of street number 2 were asked to wait for their turn. But, the residents demanded that their street should be constructed before monsoon. After residents approached the panchayat with their plan to construct the street, the panchayat approved a resolution for the same.”