Punjab govt allocates another Rs 2 crore for holy Bein

Kapurthala, Oct 5 (UNI) The Punjab Government has allocated another Rs 2 crore for the holy Bein project to stop the flow of sullage water of towns and villages into the rivulet.

This was informed here today by Holy Bein Project coordinator P Ram, who is the Principal Secretary Technical Education while reviewing the progress of various works going on under the Bein project.

Mr Ram claimed that 80 percent of work of digging up of ponds in the villages along the Bein course had been completed and these villages had now stopped putting the dirty water into the rivulet.

He said work in the remaining four villages in Kapurthala and ten villages in Hoshiarpur district was going on at a slow pace due to the land acquisition problem.

He directed Deputy Commissioner J M Balamurugan to depute one officer to expedite the files in Chandigarh pertaining to land acquisition for ponds in the remaining villages.

He expressed his dismay over the slow progress in the Hoshiarpur belt and asked the DC to call an explanation from the concerened Block Development Panchayat Officers (BDPO) of Tanda and Dasuya for not attending the meeting ignoring the orders the Deputy Commissioner pf Hoshiarpur. The meeting decided to hold the next monthly review meeting at Hoshiarpur to accelerate the project.

Mr Balamurugan informed the meeting that the work on the installation of pillars along the boundary of the 160 kilometer long Bein would start from October 8 and would be completed by October 25.

A Punjab Energy Development Authority (PEDA) official told the meeting that the work on the mini hydel project to generate 750 kilowatt of power at Tarkiana barrage near village Dhanoa would start soon as the tender had been allotted. Mr Ram directed the PEDA official to identify the remaining three sites for the installation of mini hydel projects on the Bein.

Mr Ram directed the drainage department to expedite the work of cross regulator at Kanjali bridge which had collapsed in the month of July this year .He also asked the BDPO s to plant trees near the ponds and adopt the duck-and-weed technology to treat the sewage water which could be used for fishing or farming.

The meeting released funds of more than Rs fifty lakh to various government departments under the Bein project.

Prominent among those who attended the meeting included Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal, his follower Sukhjit Singh, SDM's and officers of drainage, forest, sewerage Board and soil conservation department. The Baba was the first one to highlight the pollution in the Bein, which is associated with Guru Nanak.

UNI