National Green Tribunal penalised Punjab Government for rupees 50 crores
Case of polluting riversCommittee constituted under the leadership of Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal submitted the report to NGT...
In order
to save the rivers Sutlej and Beas of Punjab from pollution the National Green
Tribunal announcing the important decision penalised the Punjab Government for
rupees 50 crores . This is for the first time that Punjab has been fined such a
big amount for polluting the rivers. Smt Shobha Singh from Rajasthan has filed
a case in NGT on 19th May 2014 against the supply of poisonous water to
Rajasthan through canals.
After
the duration of the case running for 4 years, NGT, making the Central Pollution
Control Board as a nodal committee had constituted a supervising committee and
environment lover Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal was taken as a member. Sant
Seechewal had thoroughly inspected the 14 treatment plants around Sutlej and
Beas rivers and only one of the treatment plants was found working properly. Many
meetings of the Supervising committee were held at Delhi, Ludhiana and
Jalandhar and most of them were presided by Sant Seechewal. He had advised
Punjab Pollution Control Board, local Bodies Department , Sewage Board
officials and the officials of other departments and appealed them to make some
solid policy to keep the Punjab rivers clean and tidy and to take their
constitutional responsibility properly. He also told them to enforce 1974 act strictly to stop contaminated waters
from being thrown in the Punjab rivers.
Providing
a solution to keep the water of the Punjab rivers clean, he said that the
treatment plants those are installed have been designed for the capacity of 135
ltr whereas capacity of flowing water is 300 ltr, due to which treatment plants
are overloaded before its time. So ,that as much of water from the earth should
be pumped out that much could be treated. Flow meter should be installed on the bypass system of treatment plant so
that contaminated water through bypass could be measured. Contaminated waters from the cities and
factories of Himachal Pradesh in big quantities are also being thrown in the
resources of Beas and Sutlej rivers.
The water
that enters in the rivers of Punjab for the last many years has changed from A
grade to B grade. Himachal pollution control
board should be instructed to stop the pollution. Sant Seechewal said
that this penalty to Punjab Government is a message that rivers water should
not be contaminated, whereas he added that the fine is not a solution to the
problem. The administration officials responsibility for making the rivers
contaminated and poisonous should be fixed and they should be made answerable.
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