Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today sought personal intervention of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for approving the master plan worth Rs 3277.57 crore to eliminate the problem of water logging in the state permanently and subsequently release grants for undertaking the required project works. In a letter to Dr Manmohan Singh, the Chief Minister reiterated that unless immediate steps were not taken for the implementation of the master plan the vast areas of Punjab would turn into barren waste land thereby depriving a large population from their primary source of agriculture income and it would be nothing less than a human catastrophe. It may be recalled that the Punjab Vidhan Sabha has recently passed a unanimous resolution strongly recommending to the Government of India for finding an appropriate permanent solution, as the state was presently confronting with grave and dangerous problem of water logging.
Giving details of the sequence of events, the Chief Minister mentioned in the aftermath of unprecedented rains during this monsoon the problem of water logging got aggravated manifolds. He apprised the Prime Minister that on his personal request the Chairman and the Members of the 14th Finance Commission visited the severely water logged areas of Sri Muktsar Sahib and subsequently a committee headed by CEO of the Rainfed Authority of India Dr JS Samra also visited the affected areas to take stock of the gravity of situation. An expert’s group headed by his Technical advisor Major General (Retd.) Mr. BS Dhaliwal submitted a master plan amounting to Rs 3277.57 crore as permanent solution to the persistent problem of water logging. The Chief Minister also told Dr. Singh that he had tried twice to update him on this major problem but unfortunately their meeting could not materialize on both occasion due to ‘latter’s prior engagements’.The Chief Minister informed Dr Singh that he along with the leader of opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Mr. Sunil Jakhar jointly gave a presentation before the Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who in principle agreed to the report. Mr. Badal also told the Prime Minister that he accompanied by Mr. Jakhar had personally apprised him about the gravity of situation during latter’s last visit to Chandigarh in Punjab Raj Bhawan. He also mentioned that in 2011 the Union Rural Development Minister Mr. Jai Ram Ramesh had also visited the water logged areas of Sri Muktsar Sahib and on seeing the situation he had said, “I am shocked to see this area devastated by water logging”. Thereafter on his recommendations a high level group of experts headed by Member Planning Commission Dr Mihir Shah carried out inspection of the water logged areas of South Western Punjab and now his report is currently lying with the Planning Commission.