NGOs to protest pollution of canal water in Ludhiana on August 24

Our Correspondent

Abohar, August 13

At a meeting held in Beopar Mandal Bhavan in Sadulshehar yesterday, participants from various NGOs gave ‘Ludhiana Chalo’ call for protest on August 24 against supply of polluted water through canals to Sriganganagar and other districts in Rajasthan.

Convener of ‘Zehar se Mukti’ movement, Maninder Singh Mann said there has been no check on poisonous water coming into canals from Punjab, which had been spreading diseases. Polluted water is a huge threat to entire humanity, he added.

Bhakra Canal Sangharsh Samiti president Mohinder Dhillon said that without widespread unity of the people, governments would not pay attention to the problem. CPM leader Pala Ram Nayak said the movement against poisonous water and drugs was related to everyone’s lives.

Farmer leader Ravinder Tarkhan said medical and synthetic drugs are taking the lives of the youth. The number of deaths due to drug overdose besides cancer is increasing. He said that crime has also increased due to drug addiction.

Pradeep Jhorad, Sukhvir Singh Fauji and CPM tehsil secretary Tara Chand Soni said efforts are being made to unite the people of Punjab and Rajasthan to build a mass movement against canal water pollution.

As the Punjab Government had not made sincere efforts to combat water pollution even when the National Green Tribunal had imposed heavy penalties in the past few years on the complaints filed in this connection, the aim of the march was to connect the people of Punjab and Rajasthan, District vice-president of All India Kisan Sabha Kaur Singh Sindhu said.