Residents take out rally over river pollution

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, May 26

To register their protest against the contamination of Beas and Sutlej rivers in the state and pushing the residents of the Malwa region to an “unprecedented drinking water crisis”, members of various social organisations, including farmers, students and doctors, took out a rally here on Saturday.

Giving a wakeup call to think of rivers, the members of the social organisations said if no action was taken now, the legacy they handed over to the next generation would turn into a conflict and deprivation.

“These rivers nurtured and nourished Punjab, a state that named after five rivers flowing here, for thousands of years. But these rivers are now being used a dumping ground for pollutants and industrial effluents. Now, the rising pollution level in these rivers has pushed residents to many dread diseases. Besides polluting our underground water, politically influential industrialists have polluted our surface water, leaving us with no alternative,” said Gurpreet Singh Chandbaja, president, Bhai Kanahiya Cancer Roko Society.

“As these rivers are the lifeline of the Southern-Western Malwa region in Punjab and a vast stretch of Rajasthan, the rising pollution level in these rivers has landed the residents of this region in the grip of many dread diseases, including cancer,” said Umendra Dutt of Kheti Virasat Mission.

“We will take the campaign to its logical conclusion. In the next stage of the protest, we will join hands with residents of Rajathan and will ask MLA, MPs and bureaucrats to try and drink this toxic water,” said Buta Singh, a retired teacher.