Rana Gurjeet urged the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and local civic authorities to immediately resume the stalled work, stating development projects should not be stalled due to political considerations.
Congress’s Kapurthala MLA and former Cabinet minister Rana Gurjeet Singh on Monday condemned the sudden stoppage of work on the Rs 26-crore potable water supply project in the town, terming the move “highly condemnable” and “against public interest”.
Following the stoppage of work, residents staged protests and demanded the immediate resumption of the project to ensure a safe and uninterrupted drinking water supply.
“I got the work started and inspected it last Saturday. The digging for laying water pipelines was going on at full scale, but shockingly, the work was stopped the very next day, on Sunday, December 21, at the behest of AAP leaders. This is completely unacceptable. Residents should not be made to suffer due to political bias,” he said.
Emphasising continuity in governance, the Congress legislator said projects sanctioned by previous governments should be carried forward in the larger public interest. “Governments function in continuity. A government belongs to everyone. For public representatives, like us, and for governments, people’s interest must always remain the top priority,” he said.
The project was sanctioned during the Congress government in Punjab between 2017 and 2022 under the Centre’s AMRUT-II (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) scheme, a flagship central government programme aimed at ensuring 100 per cent coverage of safe and adequate drinking water in urban areas, strengthening water infrastructure, and providing sustainable water supply systems.
Rana Gurjeet said he had taken up the issue with the Centre when the AMRUT-I scheme was nearing completion. Considering the urgent need in Kapurthala and the deteriorating water supply infrastructure, the project was approved under AMRUT-II, he said.
The Congress leader said the project became necessary due to the extremely poor condition of the existing water pipelines in the town. “In several localities, old and corroded pipelines resulted in potable water getting mixed with sewage, posing serious health risks to residents.”
Under the project, a new 95-km potable water pipeline network was planned across Kapurthala, using six-inch GI cement-coated, rust-proof pipes to ensure durability and safety. The water supply was to be sourced from tube wells, while four-inch pipelines were planned for household connections. The project aimed to cover 100 per cent of the town’s population and was scheduled to be completed within two years.