After Centre, Guv reviews Buddha Nullah project
A day after the Centre reviewed the status of the ongoing project to rejuvenate Buddha Nullah, Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria on Tuesday took stock of the widespread pollution in the Sutlej tributary, which passes through Ludhiana.
He expressed serious concern over the issue and called Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to meet him on Thursday for working out an enduring action plan to clean and preserve the nullah.
Kataria was interacting with a delegation of ‘Kale Pani Da Morcha’, a civil society movement waging a war on rampant water pollution, at Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh.
Accompanied by Rajya Sabha MP Satnam Singh Sandhu, the delegation, comprising environmentalists Col Jasjit Gill (retd), Jaskirat Singh, Amitoj Mann, Amandeep Bains and Kapil Arora, urged the Governor to order immediate implementation of the last month’s orders issued by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) to stop the discharge of treated water from three common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) into Buddha Nullah.
They apprised Kataria that despite the orders, effluents were flowing without any check into the Sutlej tributary and the authorities concerned were least bothered about the blatant violation.
The delegation also sought implementation of a recent order by the Centre for stopping discharge of dyeing industry’s effluent into Buddha Nullah through three CETPs, which was continuing unabatedly for over a decade in gross violation of the environmental laws and orders of pollution regulatory bodies to ensure zero liquid discharge (ZLD) into the natural waterbody.
The delegates informed the Governor that the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had written to the PPCB on August 12 for implementing the over decade-old condition (of not discharging treated effluent water into a natural water body) within 15 days.
Acting on this letter, the PPCB issued orders on September 25 and 26 to stop discharge of liquid into Buddha Nullah immediately but the PPCB order had not been implemented even after 12 days, the delegation apprised the Governor.
Kataria assured the delegation that he would look into the matter and take up the matter with the CM.
The delegation submitted that despite provisions of the Water Act of 1974, directions of the Supreme Court for ZLD, environment clearance (EC) restrictive condition, orders of the CPCB, and PPCB, the three CETPs of the dyeing industry at Ludhiana were operating in an illegal manner and brazenly dumping their effluent into Buddha Nullah even as the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) had issued the environment clearance for setting up of these plants in 2013 and 2014 on the basis of ZLD technology.
