Showing zero tolerance towards the menace of pollution in Punjab’s rivers, the Monitoring Committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal on Wednesday asked the concerned officers to pull up their socks otherwise face the music due to complacency on their part to take effective measures to contain in a result-oriented manner.
At the same time, the Committee also directed the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), Municipal Corporations of Ludhiana and Jalandhar for strict surveillance and monitoring in the industry prone areas to check the flow of untreated industrial and domestic effluents besides launching a crackdown on erring industrial units, which were violating the pollution norms.
Reviewing the progress of implementation of Action Plans for Clean Rivers during its seventh meeting, the Commitee’s chairperson Justice (retired) Jasbir Singh referring to an issue, raised by the renowned environmentalist Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal regarding 550th prakash purb of Guru Nanak Dev, directed the PPCB to ensure that none of any kind of waste is thrown into the historic Kali Bein.
Justice Singh asserted that no laxity in this regard would be tolerated at any cost.
He maintained that the Committee will be initiating field visits soon to assess the ground reality in different districts including Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana.
Fixing next meeting on December 11 to evaluate the action taken, the chairperson also directed concerned officers to accomplish the tasks given to them in a stipulated time frame by achieving requisite results.
He also asked the departments or agencies concerned to take appropriate action on the recommendations and decisions made by the Committee during its field visits during past couple of months.
It was also decided in the meeting that all agencies involved in the cause of preventing the state rivers from pollutants would ensure timely submission of action taken reports otherwise the officer concerned be held accountable for inordinate delay.
Taking stock of monitoring of rivers’ water quality, the panel was apprised that stretches of river Satlej had registered an improvement in water quality class whereas efforts were being done to improve the water quality class of stretches of Sutlej and Ghaggar rivers.
PPCB informed the Committee that the technical evaluation had already been completed for installation of 11 Real Time Water Quality Monitoring Stations in the rivers of the state.Panel chairperson asked the Department of Soil and Water Conservation to prepare and present a detailed plan for reuse of treated wastewater of sewerage treatment plants of Ludhiana city for irrigation.
The Department apprised that it had launched a massive program to motivate the farmers to use the treated water as the NABARD had already approved the proposal for using wastewater from 25 sewerage treatment plants in the state.
