Badal orders depts to clean Sutlej river, strengthen its banks

Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has directed the irrigation department and the mining wing of the industries department to ensure cleaning of the Sutlej river and strengthening of its banks.

Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has directed the irrigation department and the mining wing of the industries department to ensure cleaning of the Sutlej river and strengthening of its banks.

A spokesperson for the chief minister’s office stated on Tuesday that while presiding over a high-level meeting with Anandpur Sahib MP Prem Singh Chandumajra and senior officers of the mining and irrigation departments, Badal asked the officers concerned to remove silt and sand from the riverbed in a planned and efficient manner. He also directed officers of the irrigation department to formulate a comprehensive plan in the next three days for cleaning the river and strengthening its banks.

Badal also stressed the need for close coordination between the irrigation department and the mining wing of the industries department so that people residing in villages of Rupnagar district could be saved from floods.

Regarding the proposal to dig out sand from the riverbed in the first phase and then initiate the work of strengthening river banks, Badal said the entire work should be taken up simultaneously so that it could be completed well before the next rainy season.