Royal family ritual “natth choora” to save Patiala from floods: Balbir slams Amarinder for “misleading people for decades”

The ritual called ‘natth choora’ is performed by the Patiala’s erstwhile royals, as per an age-old belief.

In 2023 when floods had hit several districts of Punjab including Patiala, the wife (Preneet Kaur) and daughter (Jai Inder Kaur) of Amarinder Singh, the scion of the Patiala royal family, had performed the ritual by offering natth (a gold nose ring) and choora (red-and-white bangles worn by brides) to Badi Nadi, a seasonal rivulet in Patiala.

In 2023, the family had said that they had performed the ritual to “respect the sentiments and beliefs of people of Patiala to save the city”. Preneet, who is a former Congress MP from Patiala, in 2023 had claimed that when the ritual was performed in 1993, “within two-three hours, waters had receded” from inundated Patiala.

Amarinder, Preneet and their daughter Jai Inder Kaur are now with the BJP. Both Preneet (on BJP ticket) and Dr Balbir Singh (on AAP ticket) had lost Lok Sabha elections from Patiala last year to Congress’s Dr Dharamvira Gandhi.

Dr Balbir Singh, MLA from Patiala Rural, said on Sunday that since decades, “politicians have only misled people of Patiala by entangling them in rituals like natth choora instead of finding any scientific solution to the problem of floods.”

“It’s not the Chhoti Nadi or Badi Nadi (two rivulets of Patiala) which have made people suffer in floods, but those who kept performing rituals like natth choora instead of finding any scientific solution to the problem,” said the minister. “They only did politics by misleading people in name of such rituals,” he added.

The minister added that a project has been prepared by the ruling AAP government to convert waters of Chhoti Nadi into a boon for the local residents of Patiala. He said this after chairing a meeting in Patiala with officials to inspect the project’s proposal.

He said that apart from 2023 and 1993-94, people of Patiala were at the receiving end multiple times due to flooding in the two rivulets but it all happened due to the “wrong policies of the previous governments”, but now a “scientific solution to the problem was in pipeline.”

The minister said the “Patiala ki Rao” water stream reaches Patiala via Chandigarh, Mohali, Fatehgarh Sahib and several other rivulets merge into it on the way.

He added that now, on the entire route from Chandigarh to Patiala, at least 1000 wells will be constructed at a distance of every 15-30 feet, and each well will consume at least two to five lakh liters of water during monsoons. Hence, this will also recharge groundwater table and save Patiala from floods.

“No more people of Patiala will be misled by politicians who used to perform these rituals and pass off floods as a natural calamity. Now, not only Patiala will be saved from floods, but the groundwater levels will also go up as same water will recharge groundwater table,” he said.