Ludhiana, July 17
A very concerned Parkash Singh Badal this morning put up a brave show. He dared leaders of his coalition partner, BJP, to drink water polluted by Budda Nullah instead of being unduly sympathetic toward the industry discharging effluents into the nullah.
By afternoon, though, Badal cooled down sufficiently, met industrialists and deferred action against the very same industry he accused of turning the nullah acidic.
Senior BJP leaders, including Deputy Speaker and local MLA Satpal Gosain, openly supported the industry at a vanmahotsav function chaired by the CM,
Badal was not amused and offered to send Gosain a glass of polluted water being supplied to the Malwa belt every day.
“Gosain Sahib, you come to me after drinking this water for some time,” he said. “You are highlighting the industry’s point of view but you must think about the consequences of pollution caused by the industry too,” Badal said, adding how even BJP state president Rajinder Bhandari had spoken to him about
the industry.
“If human beings perish, what will we do with industrial units? Not only the water of Sutlej but Ludhiana's underground water is unfit for drinking due to industrial discharge into Budda Nullah,” he carried on.
Gosain, in his speech, had looked straight at Badal and asked him to take care of the interests of the industry — “You are here to plant trees but do not forget the industry too is like a huge tree, giving shelter to many. If it is destroyed, many people will be affected.”
Representatives of the key polluters — the dyeing and electroplating units — cheered as he spoke.
A caustic Badal responded how he too wanted the industrial sector to do well, “but we have to find a solution to this problem. People are dying of cancer. I am ready to listen to the industrialists but they should come forward with a solution. We all should work together on it.”
By afternoon, he indeed had moved forward, and set up a panel. MP Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, MLAs Satpal Gosain, Harish Rai Dhanda, Hira Singh Gabria and Harish Bedi, BJP state chief Rajinder Bhandari and industrialist S. P. Oswal will brainstorm the matter and suggest ways to save the dying nullah — and the people of Malwa — so that no one is condemned to drink polluted water, not
even Mr Gosain…
