Residents of historic Chabba village, situated on the southern side of the holy city, are grappling with myriad troubles, including incomplete sewage treatment plant (STP), narrow road and contaminated water.
In December 2022, AAP legislator from Attari, Jaswinder Singh Ramdas, along with his party leaders and officials of the Panchayat Department, had set the ball rolling for setting up of the STP at the site of village pond.
According to the blueprint, a landscaped garden with seating arrangements had to come up along with the STP.
A visit to the spot revealed that two concrete wells have been made while the rest of the land continued to be submerged in dirty water.
Accentuating the problem, borewells of the STP were to be connected with seasonal rivulet. However, later it came out that the level of nullah was at an elevated position and the borewells were at low level.
“Another major problem is mixing of sewage with groundwater. It has made groundwater unfit for drinking,” said Manish Rambani, a villager.
He added that a local committee running Rambani Mandir, which is situated next to the pond, has not received any compensation while a part of it came under the proposed STP.
Residents living around the temple are utilising its water for drinking and for other domestic chores. When the management committee objected, visiting officials and ruling party leaders stated that boundary wall and levelling would be done but to no avail.
Another resident, Joginder Kumar, said they had never received clean piped water. A complaint to the DDPO elicited the response that the supply was disrupted due to improper levelling of the land. The DDPO assured that proper levelling would be done and a playground would also be established.
The stretch passing through the village and connecting it to the Tarn Taran road is quite narrow. At a time only one vehicle can ply on the stretch. Since half of the road is non-motorable, driving a vehicle gets difficult during monsoon.
AAP leader and Attari Market Committee chairperson Seema Sodhi said 2,000 trailers of fly ash were poured into the pond. The work came to a standstill after differences emerged between two factions of the panchayat.
She said no government department gives funds for earth filling. An estimate for nearly 2-km village land had been sent and this would remove anomalies of mixing up of sewage water with piped water supply, said Sodhi.
