CHANDIGARH: In a memorandum submitted to the Punjab Governor here this morning, the leaders of the “ Kale Pani Da Morcha” has sought action against officials of the Punjab Pollution Control Board for their failure to check the pollution of the Budha Dariya at Ludhiana and beyond. The Morcha leaders also requested the Governor to impress upon the statement to prevent the industrial units from releasing toxic effluents in the Dariya .
The morcha consists of a group of activists and a large number of NGOs working for reversing toxic pollution of rivers of Punjab. It is a well-known fact that the Rivers of Punjab are severely polluted & out of which the condition of Buddha Dariya is worst and has become an icon of water pollution in North India. It is very unfortunately a direct drinking water source for a large number of districts of Punjab and Rajasthan.
Morcha leaders said that that a lot of illegal effluent dumping points of industries as well as those of urban local bodies and dairies exist in the state that dump toxic waste into the rivers by going against the well settled law but the concerned authorities have failed to stop them despite mandatory condition of Environment Clearance & Water Act of 1974.
They asserted that despite provisions of Water Act of 1974, directions of Hon’ble Supreme Court for ZLD, EC restrictive condition, orders of CPCB & PPCB, the three CETPs of the dyeing industry at Ludhiana are operating in an illegal manner and brazenly dumping their effluent into Buddha Dariya and now since more than 12 years have passed, the Polluting Industries should be immediately shut down till they comply with mandatory conditions of Water Act & EC.
Morcha leaders have urged the Governor to impress upon the Govt. of Punjab to comply with law of land and immediately pause all polluting industries, CETPs etc till they comply with the letter and the spirit of the law. We invite you to visit CETPs near Central Jail, Tajpur Road Ludhiana to see the factual condition of Buddha Dariya being polluted by discharging Nine Crore liters of effluent per day in a completely in an illegal manner in active connivance with the officials of PPCB. We also invite you to visit village Walipur to see with your own eyes how Buddha Dariya mixes into the Sutlej to wreak havoc in the lives of millions in Punjab and Rajasthan resulting into deadly diseases like Cancer, Hepatitis, and Skin Diseases etc. to citizens, animals as well as endangering the aquatic life. We demand strong action against officials of PPCB who have allowed such pollution to go on in the last one decade.