Mohali slums hand out open invitation to epidemic

Mohali It seems the Mohali District Administration has not learnt any lessons from the epidemic in Mohali village that saw over 600 (official figure) cases of cholera, diarrhoea and gastroenteritis be reported at various hospitals. Madanpur village in Phase II, another slum area in Mohali, looks likely to hand out an open invitation to disease with the prevailing insanitary conditions, overflowing drains and no supply of drinking water.

Not surprisingly, this hamlet that houses over 5,000 families falls prey to various waterborne and viral diseases every year.

Over the last two years, four children have died here and several others hospitalised, because of suspected diarrhoea.

After the recent epidemic, Deputy Commissioner P S Mand had directed the civic body officials and the Health, Water Supply and Sanitation departments to take necessary measures in all the slums across the district to avoid any epidemic.

All the tall claims, however, seem limited to paper as a visit to Madanpur on Friday only revealed heaps of garbage and choked sewers.

Up in arms against the Municipal Council and the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority, the slum dwellers today resorted to demonstration. Coming to their rescue, MC senior vice-president Harman Preet Singh Prince met the Deputy Commissioner, GMADA Chief Administrator and Civil Surgeon to take stock of the situation.

“If the civic body president Rajinder Singh Rana is unable to take care of his own ward, under which Madanpura falls, he has no moral right to continue on his post,” said Prince, while urging the state Government to immediately dismiss Rana.

The situation in Mataur, Shahimajra, Jagatpura, Shaheed Udham Singh Colony, Adarsh Colony and Balongi village is no better. With no facility of sewerage, the inhabitants have been forced to defecate in the open, thereby making the area epidemic-prone.

NOBODY’S BABY
While the civic body, under whose limits Madanpura falls, shrugs off its responsibility on the pretext that GMADA had neither developed nor formally handed over the area, the development authority argues that the MC should take care of areas that fall within its limits.

NO WORK
It was in August last year that taking Madanpura on priority basis, the state Government had directed GMADA to create basic civic infrastructure, including clean drinking water supply, sewerage system, concrete drains, streets and roads. The MC was also asked to free Madanpura from milk dairies and milch animals that are a major source of insanitation. The work never began with intensity and the little momentum that it gathered ceased with the death of Cooperation Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh, who was the force behind the move.

DCSPEAKS
“I am not aware of the problem, but will take it up with the Local Government department,” said Deputy Commissioner P S Mand.