The monitoring committee, constituted by the National Green Tribunal on Tuesday took a serious note of deteriorating water quality of rivers on account of non-functioning of the Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs), and Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs).
The Committee, headed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s former Judge Justice Pritam Pal, directed all the stakeholder departments to adhere to the timelines given by NGT for execution of the action plans for cleaning rivers Sutlej, Beas and Ghaggar by March 31, 2021.
The officers or officials of concerned departments were also cautioned to discharge their duties diligently failing which disciplinary action would be recommended against the erring officers.
Besides, directions were also issued to the state Local Government Department to prepare a comprehensive plan for wastewater management of Ludhiana and Jalandhar cities within 30 days by mapping all the industries and considering point and non-point sources of water pollution.
Directions were also given to the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) for strengthening of mechanism for inspection of ETPs installed by the industries.
The directions were issued during the Committee’s meeting to review the progress of implementation of action plans for clean rivers Sutlej, Beas and Ghaggar with stakeholder departments.
The Committee also reviewed the timelines for setting up of new STPs, CETPs and ETPs for the treatment of dairy waste.
It was informed that the Committee would also make surprise visits to the industrial units and take stern action against the non-complying units and also against the officer responsible for the same.
The Committee also desired that the Department of Soil and Water Conservation would prepare plan for utilizing the treated sewage of STPs of Ludhiana and Jalandhar for irrigation.