Officials, NGOs, citizens join hands to begin Sidhwan cleaning again

LUDHIANA: The Times of India’s ‘Let’s Save Sidhwan’ campaign continues to witness action on the ground, as the Municipal Corporation started machine-based cleaning of garbage with JCBs and tippers, and a group of residents carried out manual cleaning activity in the canal bed from Thursday. On 26 April 2015, the then irrigation minister Sharanjeet Singh Dhillon had inaugurated the cleaning of Sidhwan Canal at Ferozepur Road, after a sustained campaign by TOI.
As the lifeline of Ludhiana, the Sidhwan Canal was choked with garbage and pollutants yet again. On Thursday morning, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation, the district administration, irrigation department, and the citizens took up arms against its conditions and joined hands to breathe a new life into the canal.

At 7.30am, mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu, along with councillor Mamta Ashu, members of Geeta Mandir Welfare Society, Asian Club (NGO), and residents of the city came together to clean the Sidhwan Canal manually. Interestingly, after seeing the mayor, the councillor, and other dignitaries cleaning the canal, children from nearby slums also joined in to lend a helping hand. They found out that the garbage dumped in the canal mostly consisted of religious wastes, such as idols and pictures of gods, disposed sheets, blankets, and coal.

Mayor Sandhu, while cleaning the canal himself, appealed to citizens of the city not to throw such garbage into the canal. He also added that while he was not condemning the religious practices of citizens, the same practices can be carried out in an eco-friendly manner. “For instance, instead of dumping the religious pictures, wastes, or idols into the canal, they should be added to the holy pyre, reduced to ash, and then added to plants, as they make excellent manure,” said the mayor. He added that only if society comes forward collectively, can the canal be cleaned.

Mamta Sharma, who stepped into the dumps to revamp them, said it was the collective duty of the administration and society to keep the canal clean. She also noted that the city needs to be more aware about cleanliness conditions of its natural resources. According to her, if every citizen keeps his/her stretch of the canal clean, the Sidhwan shall become the pride of the city in no time.

“We shall be here every day at 7.30am to clean Sidhwan. We hope that we receive participation from locals in large numbers,” said the councillor, who is the wife of cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, and does execute many of his projects. She appreciated The Times of India campaign on Sidhwan Canal, and said they were taking the mission forward.

Volunteers who had come to lend a helping hand noted that the administration and residents needed to work in a parallel manner to achieve the dream of a clean Sidhwan Canal. They said more people — especially students from schools and colleges — needed to come forward to realize their duty and clean the canal.

“The cleaning of Sidhwan Canal is a long process, and we need a lot of awareness among people. Thus, unless people are educated about the harm of polluting the canal, not much will change on the ground, and they will again throw stuff into the waterbody,” said Poonam Sharma, a volunteer. She added if such pollutants mix with the irrigation water, it shall have adverse effects on aquatic and human health.

After the manual cleaning, two JCBs and six tippers came to the site to remove the waste. After constructing a ramp for its descent, a JCB Truck went into the canal and started piling the waste. Elucidating the process, Councillor Mamta Sharma said, “One JCB is inside the canal and shall pile the garbage at one site. The other JCB shall pick up the garbage and put it in the tippers. The garbage will then be carried to the Tajpur dumping site, where the recyclable waste will be separated, and the rest will be treated properly.” She also revealed that 50 to 60 workers are working on the ground to clean the patch.

According to Municipal Corporation officials, the total process of cleaning the canal, from the Pakhowal Road bridge to the railway line would take 2-3 days. The officers on the site also revealed that after the patch is cleaned, a tractor will run over the canal bank, and trees and grass will be planted over the area for its beautification, and to sustain the canal’s ecology. They shall also put up boards to raise awareness among people about the ill-effects of dumping garbage in the canal. In order to further dissuade people from throwing garbage into the canal, if anyone is found polluting the canal, at first, a warning will be issued to the offender.

The councillor said the irrigation department too was lending all technical support to the project, right from how to build a ramp for the JCB’s descent, to the identification of areas requiring most attention.

PATROLLING TO PREVENT LITTERING

After the cleanliness drive, the MC will continue patrolling the canal to prevent people from throwing debris and litter into it. However, the department stated that since it had a shortage of staff, it was a Herculean task for it to patrol each and every area of the canal, thereby stressing on the need for increased public awareness about the issue.

The departments in unison said the drive can be successful only if the general public of Ludhiana cooperates with the officials. A municipal corporation official shared: “Unless the citizens are educated and made aware about the dire effects of polluting Sidhwan Canal, no drive can be successful. The residents need to realize that the water is used for drinking and irrigation purposes by villagers and citizens alike. By polluting Sidhwan and making it toxic, we are digging a grave for ourselves. Once, one of our officials stopped a person from dumping something into the canal, and that person pointed a gun at the official. If people hold such attitudes and mentality, no drive can ever be successful, no matter how hard we work.”