Ludhiana, May 4
Punjab’s industrial hub, Ludhiana, is drowning in civic collapse. Behind the government’s hollow boasts of “world‑class infrastructure” lies a city gasping for the most basic necessity — a functioning sewerage system. The rot runs so deep that even elite colonies like Model Town are reduced to cesspools, with filthy backflow invading homes after the slightest drizzle. What residents endure is not inconvenience but humiliation — a relentless civic nightmare that mocks every promise of progress and exposes the administration’s utter failure to protect its people.
The crisis has spiraled into a grotesque spectacle — homes in the lane behind Hotel Chevron are literally inundated with sewage, choking residents with stench, disease, and the constant fear of infection. What compounds this misery is the endless neglect by the MC Officials, each passing through without lifting a finger to confront the disaster. Interacting with The News Gateway, aggrieved residents declared that LMC has abandoned its people to filth, leaving Model Town citizens trapped in a nightmare of official apathy and civic betrayal.
The monsoon looms just months away, and residents already brace for another season of humiliation — their homes once again awash with sewerage filth. “We know we’ll be forced to suffer the stench and disease all over again,” lamented Kishor Kumar, a resident, condemning the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation’s pathetic functioning. His anguish was echoed by many others who told The News Gateway that the LMC has left citizens to relive this civic nightmare year after year, with no will or resolve to end the torment.
The sewerage crisis in Model Town has reached a breaking point. Residents point out that the pipelines are woefully undersized, decades old, and utterly incapable of handling drainage. Year after year, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation makes grandiose claims of desilting, but the exercise remains a sham confined to paperwork. The truth is stark: only the replacement of these obsolete pipelines with larger ones can provide lasting relief. Until then, residents demand that every sewer point — both Up and Down — in the lanes of Model Town be rigorously cleaned with Super Suction Machines, so that at the very least, families are spared the indignity of sewage flooding their homes with the onset of the monsoon.
Meanwhile, independent investigations reveal that whenever the Operations & Maintenance (O&M) Cell receives complaints, the officials mark them as “redressed” without taking any action. “The O&M officials work as per their ‘whims and fancies’. How come the same JE/SDO remain stationed in one area beyond their three-year tenure? Some never get transferred,” rued an area resident whose repeated complaints were disposed of without resolution.
Several area residents exposed the entrenched nexus between officials and ruling party MLAs, alleging that the O&M Cell functions solely at the dictates of political bosses. This explains why officials remain glued to their posts well beyond their tenure. What makes the situation truly alarming is that such blatant defiance of norms is unfolding right under the nose of Local Government Minister Sanjeev Arora — himself a Ludhiana native and MLA from Ludhiana (West).
Now, exasperated by the entrenched political–official nexus and the highly irresponsible conduct of LMC’s top brass, residents have issued a stern ultimatum: unless a permanent solution is delivered before the monsoon sets in, they will be compelled to gherao the residence of Minister Sanjeev Arora.
Meanwhile, sensing the gravity of the crisis, political leaders have lashed out at the government. Senior BJP leader and former Senior Deputy Mayor Praveen Bansal said, “If even a posh locality like Model Town is reeling under such civic collapse, one can only imagine the misery of the rest of Ludhiana. It is shocking that LMC remains indifferent to an issue that strikes at the very core of human rights.”
Despite repeated attempts, Minister Sanjeev Arora and Municipal Commissioner Dr. Neeru Katyal Gupta remained unavailable for comment. However, when contacted, PPCC President and Ludhiana MP Amarinder Singh Raja Warring assured that he would take up the matter with the concerned authorities for its early redressal.
