Ludhiana: Action sought against PPCB for ‘concealing’ info on CETPs

Kale Pani Da Morcha, a group of environmental activists, has written to Punjab assembly speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, seeking an inquiry and action against top officials of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) for allegedly hiding documents related to environment clearances to three common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) of dyeing industrial units from the 12-member vidhan sabha committee on Buddha Nullah.

The morcha, in its letter, stated that the mandate of the committee was to investigate reasons for pollution in the Buddha Nullah and make recommendations for its solution. The committee came out with its 81-page interim report on March 11 last year but that report talks only about minor issues, it alleged.

“The committee held 30 meetings to come up with this report but missed this elephant in the room of illegal CETPs completely only because officials did not share the environment clearances of the CETPs with them which clearly prohibit all three of them from throwing even their treated effluent in the Buddha Nullah,” the NGO mentioned.

The letter says that it was only when the NGT sent the Central Pollution Control Board to investigate the matter did these documents come out in the public domain and the CPCB directed the PPCB to close the “illegal outlets” of the CETPs in August following which the PPCB ordered their closure.

The letter further stated that the PPCB took no action against the CETPs and their directors even when the 50 MLD CETP was caught red-handed by a joint team of the Ludhiana MC and the PPCB for connecting pipes in which hot and coloured water was being bypassed into the municipal sewers and going to the Jamalpur sewage treatment plant (STP). “This was reported in the media and also finds mention in the report of an amicus curiae of the NGT but finds no mention in the report of the vidhan sabha committee,” the Kale Pani Da Morcha mentioned.

The morcha has sought inquiry into the conduct of the PPCB chairman, member secretary and others to fix accountability.