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 for allegedly hiding documents related to environment clearances to three common effluent treatment plants of dyeing industrial units from the 12-member vidhan sabha committee on Buddha Nullah. Kale Pani Da Morcha, in its letter, stated that the mandate of the 12-member vidhan sabha committee on Buddha Nullah was to investigate reasons for pollution in the waterbody in Ludhiana and make recommendations for its solution. “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.