PHAGWARA: Rajya Sabha MP and noted environmentalist Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal has urged the Punjab government to immediately undertake desilting of the Harike Headworks, warning that the Mand region will continue to suffer devastating floods until the issue is addressed.
Seechewal raised the demand during Chief Secretary K.A.P. Sinha’s visit to flood-affected villages in the area on Saturday evening. Taking the top official on a boat tour of submerged homes, Seechewal pointed out that every year, heavy rains in Himachal bring massive deposits of silt and sand into the Beas river, which settle at Harike. “The rising riverbed makes the Beas flow higher, while adjoining farmlands lie lower, leaving them exposed to constant flooding, ” he said.
The MP added that although the Harike wetland falls under Rajasthan’s pond area and a ₹400-crore project had once been prepared by that state, little has changed on the ground. “Unless systematic desilting is carried out, Mand’s farmers and families will continue to face this man-made calamity, ” Seechewal stressed.
For the past 21 days, the MP has been continuously engaged in relief work in the Mand belt, visiting villages and extending support to flood-hit families.