Raise Ujh dam, flood issues with Centre: AAP delegates to Kataria

The delegation, comprising sarpanches, chairmen and zila parishad members, highlighted the massive destruction in Ajnala and adjoining areas due to the waters of the Ravi and Ujh rivers

A delegation of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by former minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal met governor Gulab Chand Kataria on Tuesday and urged him to take up the long-pending issues of recurring floods, construction of the Ujh dam and development of the border region with the central government.

He said the governor assured them that he would soon arrange a meeting between the delegation and the Union jal shakti minister. (HT FILE)

The delegation, comprising sarpanches, chairmen and zila parishad members, highlighted the massive destruction in Ajnala and adjoining areas due to the waters of the Ravi and Ujh rivers. Dhaliwal said the Ujh river, which originates from Jammu and Kashmir, passes through Pathankot, Sujanpur, Dinanagar, Gurdaspur and Dera Baba Nanak before reaching Ajnala and then flowing into Pakistan. “By the time it reaches Ajnala, it causes massive destruction. Farmers lose their crops, roads are damaged, schools collapse and fertile agricultural land is washed away,” he said.

Drawing the governor’s attention to the long-pending proposal for construction of a dam on the Ujh river, the Ajnala MLA said the central government’s plan to construct a dam on the Ujh river had been pending for the last 10 to 12 years. “We have requested the governor to strongly raise this issue with the Prime Minister and the Union ministry of jal shakti so that the construction of the dam can be completed at the earliest,” he said, calling for greater focus on border areas.