Governor calls for enduring solution to Buddha Nullah problem

Governor Gulab Chand Kataria took up the issue of Buddha Nullah pollution with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday.

Mann called on Kataria at the Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh and remained there for almost one and a half hours. Besides attending the concluding day of the Vice-Chancellors’ conference, the CM and the Governor held one-on-one meeting to discuss the issues concerning the state, a senior officer privy to the development told The Tribune.

The Governor, it is learnt, discussed the Buddha Nullah issue with Mann and asked him to order strict implementation of the three orders issued by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) Chairman to stop 105 million litres per day (MLD) discharge of treated effluents from three common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) into the Sutlej tributary.

Kataria also called for an enduring solution to save the Buddha Nullah from widespread pollution and rejuvenate it into a clean waterbody.

The development assumes significance as the issue of the polluted Sutlej tributary, which is part of the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan, had already drawn the attention of the Union Government.

After the Centre reviewed the status of the ongoing project to rejuvenate Buddha Nullah in New Delhi on October 7, a delegation of environmentalists and activists spearheading a campaign to free the Sutlej tributary of pollution, led by Rajya Sabha MP Satnam Singh Sandhu, had met the Governor to seek his intervention in the matter.

Kataria had expressed serious concerns over the issue and had asked CM Mann to meet him to work out an enduring action plan to clean and preserve the Buddha Nullah. The delegation had apprised the Governor that despite the PPCB’s orders, the effluent discharge from three CETPs was continuing into the Buddha Nullah without any check as the authorities concerned were least bothered about the blatant violation.

The delegation had also sought implementation of a recent Union Government order for stopping discharge of dyeing industry’s effluents into the nullah through three CETPs.