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Waterlogging in Bathinda: SAD, Congress leaders indulge in blame game
The inundation of the city caused by heavy rain on Saturday and Sunday throwing normal life out of gear is becoming a political issue here, a few months before the 2017 Punjab assembly polls.
The inundation of the city caused by heavy rain on Saturday and Sunday throwing normal life out of gear is becoming a political issue here, a few months before the 2017 Punjab assembly polls.
While the Congress blamed the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the scenario, the SAD on the other hand claimed of taking steps to resolve the problem. Roads in several parts of the city such as Civil Lines area and Sirki Bazar remained waterlogged even after two days of rain on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, as the Bathinda (urban) MLA Sarup Chand Singla along with Bathinda deputy commissioner (DC) Basant Garg, senior superintendent of police (SSP) Swapan Sharma and Bathinda MC commissioner Anil Garg moved out on a tractor to take stock of the waterlogging situation on Monday, the Congress on Tuesday termed the step a ‘drama’.
Punjab Congress general secretary and former MLA Harminder Singh Jassi said that the traders in the affected areas had to keep their business establishments close for three days due to the prevailing situation while water had entered the houses in residential areas.
Jassi alleged that the capacity of the four ponds in which the rain water is drained has been decreased as the land of these ponds has been ilegally grabbed by the associates of the ruling alliance.
Singla, on the other hand, hit out at Congress and said that he need not take Congress’ certification for development by SAD-BJP in Bathinda.
He added that the waterlogging problem persisted only in five or six low-lying areas as the authorities succeeded in clearing the water from the rest of the places in the city.
Denying allegations of land grab of ponds, Singla said that land grab actually took place in the regime of the Congress and that the present government has constructed a boundary wall around the ponds to stop the illegal grabbing.
