No stay on PPCB orders, Tribunal defers hearing on industry’s appeals

With no stay on the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) orders to stop the discharge of effluents from three common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) into the Buddha Nullah, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has deferred the hearing on two separate appeals filed by the dyeing industry to November 4.

The Punjab Dyers Association had approached the NGT against the orders issued by the PPCB to stop the discharge of 105-MLD (million litres daily) treated effluents from three CETPs into the Sutlej tributary.

Taking up the appeals, the NGT Principal Bench, headed by its chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and comprising judicial member Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert member Dr A Senthil Vel, said: “The counsel for the appellant submits that he is confining this appeal to the order dated September 26, 2024, in respect of the direction for meeting the prescribed discharge standards and to stop the discharge of effluents from the CETP into the Buddha Nullah. He has sought liberty to file a separate appeal against the order for revocation of consent.”

Allowing the prayer, the NGT ordered that the necessary correction in the memo of appeal be carried out within three days while adjourning the hearing in both appeals to November 4.

Meanwhile, the discharge of effluents into the Buddha Nullah continued without any check in the absence of any action to implement the PPCB ban orders issued on September 25 and 26.

Irked over the inaction, an environmentalist, Col Jasjit Gill (retd), who is spearheading a sustained campaign to free the Sutlej tributary of widespread pollution, has sought intervention of Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria in implementing the PPCB orders.

“The government’s dilly dallying is resulting in dilution of its own legitimate orders based on the water conservation Acts. The Punjab Government has to come clean and clear on its stand that whether it’s for the 2 crore people, who are target of this chemical cocktail assault up to Rajasthan, who drink and use this water for irrigation or it is with a group of polluters, who, so far, have cocked a snoop at the pollution control laws,” he said.

Col Gill, in a representation, a copy of which was released to The Tribune here on Friday, stated that there was a mala fide in delaying orders implementation so as to provide

polluters a window of opportunity to get some judicial reprieve or delay in implementation of these legitimate orders of its own pollution controller — PPCB to stop pollution of the Sutlej waters via the nullah.

He requested the Governor to intervene on behalf of the people of the state, as being custodians of rule of law in Punjab, on an emergency basis to stop this slow murder of people downstream of the nullah and get the rule of law implemented forthwith.

“I am afraid, otherwise the people, who are suffering, will be forced to close this chemical assault on waters of the Sutlej via nullah, which is their lifeline, and it will indicate a complete failure of law and order in the state,” the environmentalist added.

Pertinently, Kale Pani Da Morcha, a civil society movement, which is waging a war on water pollution, had already threatened to launch a mass public movement against the grave problem and forcibly stop the flow of effluents into the nullah in Ludhiana on December 3.