Punjab CM urges Hooda to check discharge of pollutants into Ghaggar river

CHANDIGARH : Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked his Haryana counterpart Bhupinder Singh Hooda to take immediate steps to check the discharge of pollutants into the Ghaggar river.

Badal, in a letter informed Hooda that a recent survey along the catchment area of Ghaggar conducted by the Punjab Pollution Control Board revealed that from Nada Sahib Gurdwara, in Panchkula district, the colour of the water was found changing downstream till the confluence point of discharge of sewage and industrial effluent from the point of Panchkula near Bhankerpur village in Mohali district.

Besides, the wastewater of Ambala, Shahbad Markanda and about 100 villages of Haryana was also being discharged into the Ghaggar river.

Even the Saraswati river, which carries the flow of wastewater from Pehowa town and industrial wastewater of some paper and cardboard mills of Kaithal district, also enters into Punjab and pollutes Ghaggar near Rasauli village in Patran tehsil of Patiala district, he added.

Badal informed Hooda that Punjab has taken steps to stop the discharge of industrial effluent into the river and at present, none of the state's industry was discharging its effluent into the Ghaggar river.

Seeking Hooda's personal intervention to make Ghaggar pollution free, Badal said, the matter had already been brought to the notice of both the Haryana State Pollution Control Board and the Central Pollution Control Board.