After SAD, Cong stints, sewage plant to be launched by AAP after 52-month wait

Ten years after the residents of Ahmedgarh first dreamt of having a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), work on the Rs 8 crore project is now almost completed.

Having been elected as the second woman president of the Municipal Council during the regime of the SAD-BJP government in the second week of March 2015, Paramjit Kaur Jassal had promised, and later initiated, the process for the installation of an STP on Dehliz Road.

However, the foundation stone for the project was jointly laid by then Congress MLA Surjit Singh Dhiman and Fatehgarh Sahib MP Dr Amar Singh Boparai on December 4, 2020. Suraaj Mohammad was the President of the Municipal Council when construction work on the STP was started.

Now, over 52 months after the foundation stone for the dream project of the 2015 SAD President was laid during the Congress regime in December 2020, commissioning of the Sewage Treatment Plant is yet to be announced during the Aam Aadmi Party regime, although work is nearly complete.

Residents of low-lying localities of the town had seen a ray of hope for a resolution to overflowing sewage, as work on installing the equipment—set up at a cost of Rs 8 crore—was expedited after Vikas Krishan Sharma assumed charge of the Municipal Council as president around eight months ago. Clearing choked sewers and managing overflowing water has remained the biggest challenge for the civic body since the constitution of the AAP government in the state.

Undue delay in the election of an AAP-supported regular president of the Municipal Council also emerged as a major factor behind the prolonged suffering of residents in low-lying areas, who have long been denied a dignified life due to unsanitary conditions.

Unlike normal times, when overflowing sewerage is handled periodically by sanitation workers in their individual beats, supervisory staff had to ensure that pipelines and manholes were cleared by specially constituted teams.

Though then Congress MLA Surjit Singh Dhiman and MP Dr Amar Singh Boparai had assured the public that work on the STP would be completed within one year of laying the foundation stone 52 months ago, its commissioning remains pending.

The district administration had taken notice of the undue delay, and ADC (D) Sukhpreet Singh Sidhu visited the site over two months ago to expedite final touches to the plant and machinery.

Municipal Council president Vikas Krishan Sharma said the plant had already been put in testing mode and would soon be dedicated to the cause of humanity after a formal inauguration by legislator Jaswant Singh Gajjanmajra.

Referring to information received from Executive Officer Vikas Uppal, Sharma claimed that a technical team from the Sewerage Board, led by Tejinder Singla, had recently inspected various sections of the STP to ensure functionality.

Rectifying overflowing sewers has long remained a challenge for the civic body. The rainy season and winters worsened conditions, forcing residents of low-lying areas to wade through stagnant, cold and foul-smelling water frequently.

Residents alleged that a defective layout of the sewerage network and a lacklustre attitude by the authorities concerned led to persistent flooding in some areas. The administration’s failure to ban the use of plastics was also cited as a major contributor to sewer and pipeline blockages.

The project operates on the Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) process mechanism. The plant’s capacity is reported to be 5 million litre per day and is expected to meet the town’s needs until the population reaches one lakh.

Ludhiana