Ambala MP Varun Chaudhry on Sunday held a demonstration in the Mullana area of the district and accused the state government of adopting a lackadaisical attitude towards the issue of waterlogging in the Lok Sabha constituency.
The MP has started a signature campaign and will submit the signatures to Haryana Governor, seeking directions for the state government.
While addressing the gathering, the Congress MP said every year the Ambala Lok Sabha constituency witnesses waterlogging due to overflowing of rivers and poor arrangements, causing losses to the residents and farmers and yet the government has shown a poor response.”
He said, “The monsoon season is approaching; however, the administration has not yet undertaken the proper cleaning and desilting of rivers, drains and channels to address the issue of waterlogging. Consequently, there remains a looming apprehension that waterlogging problems will arise in fields, roads and residential areas during the rains. The objective behind the protest and signature campaign is to draw the attention of the government towards the issue of waterlogging.”
MP Chaudhry was accompanied by Mullana MLA Pooja Chaudhry, Ambala District Congress Committee (rural) president Dushyant Chauhan, former information commissioner Ashok Mehta and several other Congress leaders during the protest near Markanda River in Mullana.
The Congress MP said the government should have acted in a timely manner, before the onset of the monsoon season, undertaking the dredging of rivers (Markanda, Begna, Ghaggar, Tangri and Som), the cleaning of drainage channels and the strengthening of embankments on a war footing.
“It has been observed that only a single Poclain machine has been deployed for dredging the Markanda River, which is inadequate. At this speed, it will take more than a year to complete the work, while according to the tender, the work is to be completed in a month. The seriousness of the government can be gauged from the fact that there is no penalty clause in the agreement if the work was not completed in time,” the MP claimed.
“Since the matter has already been raised in the Haryana assembly and letters have been sent to the chief minister, it has been decided that the signatures will be sent to the Haryana governor. We will request him to direct the government to show seriousness to complete the work at war footing. All efforts should be made to protect people from losses due to waterlogging,” he said.
The MP also alleged that the majority of homes in the region are constructed using sand extracted from the Markanda river; yet, the government wrongly classified the material as ordinary soil. The tender issued by the government for the dredging of the Markanda river was floated for “soil" extraction rather than “sand", clearly demonstrating that the government is causing a significant loss to the state’s revenue.
“Due to the government’s negligence, farmers’ crops were destroyed by floods in previous years and the general public was forced to endure severe hardships. Similar protests will be held near the Tangri River in Ambala Cantonment on Monday and near the Som River in Yamunangar on Tuesday,” the MP said.
He also added, “If the government fails to take the necessary steps promptly to resolve the issue of waterlogging, a protest march to Chandigarh will be organised on foot.”
