Jalandhar, July 3 (STN)- Member Parliament and renowned Environmentalist Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal on Monday reiterated that the Holy Bein would be declared pollution-free before the forthcoming Parkash Purab of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Accompanied by Additional Chief Secretary Science & Technology Rahul Tiwari, PPCB Chairman Adarsh Goyal, the MP reviewed the progress on making the Holy Bein pollution-free and directed the officials to achieve this goal within stipulated time-frame as any inordinate delay would be highly unwarranted. He was chairing the meeting of officials from Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur Districts.
The Member Parliament said that the stakeholder departments should adopt stringent measures to plug the unauthorized waste outlets into the Kala Sanghian Drain and Holy Bein. He categorically mentioned that all sources of pollution must be fixed through a coordinated approach by Municipal Corporation, Municipal Councils, Punjab Pollution Control Board, Sewerage Board, Drainage Departments, and others. Sant Seechewal said that a multi-pronged strategy should be adopted to combat polluters including regular checking, sampling and plugging of untreated sewerage discharge into the drain.
He mentioned that all the unauthorized sewerage waste outlets must be plugged at any cost besides taking stern action against the dairies throwing their waste directly into the Kala Sanghian Drain. The member parliament asserted the functioning of sewerage treatment plants must be analyzed at the earliest to ensure that the sewerage waste flowing through these plants was treated as per the norms fixed by the National Green Tribunal. He further stated that daily 135-liter per capita water supply to be ensured by the authorities in the district so that Sewerage Treatment Plants do not get overloaded with sewerage waste. Proper and effective functioning of STPs must be ensured so that entire waste gets treated at these plants, he said adding regular sampling and testing can help achieve this mission.
Speaking on the occasion, Additional Chief Secretary Science & Technology Rahul Tiwari directed the officials to constitute a two-member committee in each council and corporation to check the functioning of STPs as per prescribed norms. He further added that this committee would submit a written report with respect to the operation of STPs which would be cross checked by the other officials so that proper transparency can be ensured in checking and testing tasks.
Mr. Tiwari directed the officials to go on mission mode to make Kali Bein and Chitti Bein pollution-free within a given timeline as regular review meetings would be held to assess the progress in this task. He stressed upon augmenting the present capacity of existing STPs besides setting up new ones. Meanwhile, he reviewed the strengthening and beautification project aimed at further streamlining the process of making it pollution-free. Member Secretary PPCB GS Majithia, Additional Deputy Commissioners Jasbir Singh, Rahul Chhaba, Varinderpal Singh Bajwa, Commissioner Kapurthala MC Anupam Kaler, SE PPCB Karunesh Garg, and officials from different departments were present in the meeting.
