Ludhiana: Frustrated by eight to nine months of continuous sewage accumulation, residents of Ward 2 in Ludhiana East have issued a seven-day ultimatum to the municipal corporation to drain stagnant waste water or face protests at the civic body’s main office.Residents alleged that sewage has been overflowing from manholes across the locality even in the absence of rain. Despite repeatedly approaching the local MLA and ward councillor over the past several months, residents claimed they received only verbal assurances without any permanent solution.The ongoing spillover directly affects three local schools, forcing young children to wade through contaminated water to reach classes, often dirtying their uniforms and bags.Local resident Sandeep Bhatt raised concerns over public health risks, noting that stagnant sewage increases vector-borne disease threats like dengue during the ongoing rainy season, demanding immediate preventive drainage actions.The prolonged waterlogging has also disrupted local commerce, particularly several hosiery units operating in the ward. Movement of raw materials, worker commutes, and customer visits have been hit due to degraded road conditions, with residents warning of secondary impacts on tax collection.Questioning the gap between official development claims and ground reality, the residents demanded the immediate clearance of accumulated sewage and a structural overhaul of the sewerage system.A recurring nightmareThe chronic sewage crisis in Ward 2 reflects a growing trend of prolonged drainage meltdowns across Ludhiana’s residential and industrial pockets over recent years. In October 2025, small-scale textile processing units in the Sunder Nagar industrial belt were forced to halt manufacturing for over two weeks when main arterial sewers backed up completely, causing heavy losses in damaged yarn stocks and triggering industrial labor strikes against civic inaction.Similar public outrage unfolded in Ward 15, Shimlapuri, in May 2025, where residents locked the gates of the sub-zonal Municipal Corporation office after a four-month-old sewage blockage began seeping directly into residential courtyards and contaminating overhead domestic water tanks.Monsoon months have repeatedly exacerbated these structural failures across commercial hubs. In August 2024, overflowing industrial effluent and domestic waste submerged major transit intersections along the Tajpur Road Hosiery Zone for nearly three months, stranding heavy transport vehicles and disrupting regional trade logistics.Civic protests over drainage failures have also hit commercial corridors in winter months. Shopkeepers along the Gill Road Commercial Corridor staged a day-long hunger strike in January 2024 to highlight failing trunk sewer lines, alleging that unaddressed spillovers decimated retail footfall and degraded street infrastructure across multiple blocks.
