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In a refreshing departure from the base of legislators and parliamentarians surrounded by elaborate escorts and entourage, Rajya Sabha MP and environmentalist, Baba Balbir Singh Sechwal, can be seen operating rigs, JCBs and filling dumpers as he cleans the Sutlej riverbed before him. The rainy season.
This initiative comes on the heels of the Punjab government’s efforts to clean up the river, and Baba Seishwal has taken up the task himself, devoting hours to operating heavy machinery to remove accumulated sand, especially near the Nile. Jidarbandi railway bridgeIt also rains in the country.
The urgency arises from the huge sand hills near the Gidderpindi Railway Bridge, which are a major obstacle to the smooth flow of water during the rainy season when the river carries a huge amount of water. This bridge was a major cause of severe flooding in Jalandhar and Kapurtala districts during the 2019 floods when heavy rains became impassable due to sandy hills, submerging many villages across several kilometers. The Punjab government suffered a loss of approximately Rs. “Rs 1,200 crore during that time,” Papa Seishwal said while having lunch inside an excavator on Wednesday.
Since then, Baba Sishwal and his supporters have been cleaning the Sutlej River using their own resources. But this time he appealed to the government to address the issue to prevent losses in case of heavy rains during monsoons.
“Prime Minister Bhagwant Singh Maan has been attentive and encouraging of our efforts,” said the MP.
“This prompted the administrative mechanism to work,” he added.
Hence, the Government of Punjab started the works of removing water from the Sutlej River under the Giderbandi Railway Bridge. The soil build-up on this bridge previously caused five floods, prompting Baba Seishwal to long demand its removal to protect people from monsoon floods. An important step was taken on 12 June when a meeting, chaired by Environment Minister Gurmeet Singh Mit Haier, was convened to address the matter following a letter from Seechewal to the Chief Minister.
During the ongoing sand removals, Lok Sabha member Sushil Rinku also visited the site. Executive Engineer Amarinder Singh Pandir of the Sanitary Department confirmed that the Punjab government has commenced soil extraction work after a tender was issued on June 23. MPs Baba Balbir Singh Seishwal and Sushil Kumar Renko, along with MLAs Bibi Inderjit Kaur of Nkaodar Assembly constituency and Devinderjit Singh Ladi of Dharamkot, visited the Jidarbandi bridge, where local residents voiced their demand to remove the soil under the bridge.
Kulwinder Singh, the head of the Flood Prevention Commission, urged sanitation department officials to do the work at war, keeping in mind the impending monsoon season. He stressed the urgency of completing soil excavation work before the heavy rains arrived, and highlighted the potential disruption it could cause to the ongoing process.
Currently, approximately 25 dump trucks and two excavators are being deployed daily, said Dushyant Chaudhary, the head of the contracting company responsible for soil extraction. Additional machines will be arranged soon to speed up the process, with the number of tippers increasing on a daily basis.
During the devastating floods of 2019, Baba Seishwal along with his loyal supporters led the rescue operations. Under his leadership, as a member of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) at that time, hundreds of tractors were mobilized to level the flooded farmland and restore its cultivation.
The floods have submerged the fields of several villages for more than three weeks, causing great damage and making them uneven and unsuitable for cultivation, with depths ranging from 5 to 40 feet.
Baba Sishwal took the initiative to level the ground himself and shared his efforts on social media. Witnessing his deeds, many farmers from nearby districts, including Mugha, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Ludhiana and Kapurtala, joined their tractors to assist in the restoration. Their generous contributions, including diesel financing, enabled the settlement process to be completed within a few days.
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