Ludhiana residents raise concern over canal turning into ‘Buddha nullah’

While efforts are being made to clean the polluted Buddha Nullah, another water body Sidhwan canal is also turning into a “nullah” due to the apathy of the irrigation department, and municipal corporation (MC) in cleaning it and failing to prevent the residents from dumping waste into it.

The residents rued that the water body has already taken the shape of ‘Buddha Nullah’ as it is full of waste nowadays, and the authorities have turned a blind eye to the problem.

The residents stated that the civic body is making efforts to make Buddha Nullah pollution-free but not paying heed to the deteriorating condition of the canal, which will become worse if no action is not taken soon.

Former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) councillor Tanvir Singh Dhaliwal said,” While it is the duty of the irrigation department to clean the canal, the MC has to prevent the residents from dumping waste into it. The canal was cleaned in 2016 at Rs 25 lakh but authorities made no concrete efforts to prevent residents from dumping waste into it nor did they do anything to clean the water body since then.”

“The MC should take the responsibility to clean the canal otherwise it will turn into a permanent dumping spot in a few years,” he added.

The residents rued that on one hand, the MC is working on projects like Sidhwan canal waterfront and is beautifying the canal banks, on the other, no efforts are being made to clean the water body.

Keerat Singh, a resident of Sarabha Nagar area, said,” No doubt MC has done a good job in developing the waterfront project alongside the canal in Sarabha Nagar area, but it will look dirty if the canal is not cleaned regularly. It will look more like a nullah moving through the city.”

Jagpreet Grewal, sub-divisional officer, irrigation department, said,” In the past few years, efforts have been made to prevent the residents from dumping waste into the canal. Iron meshes were also installed at the canal bridges with the help of NGOs but it didn’t deter them from dumping waste into it. I will take up the matter with the higher authorities.”

MC commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal said, “We’ll start issuing challans to residents of they don’t stop dumping waste into the canal.”