Notice to sugar mill, not owners

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 23

The state government has issued a show-cause notice to Chadha Sugars and Industries, asking why action should not be initiated against them for release of molasses in the Beas last week. However, none of the promoters of the company, including Jasdeep Kaur Chadha, has been named in the notice.

The notice, it is learnt, was served on the officials of the company at the mill in Kiri Afgana. Since it has not named promoters of the sugar mill, owned by a kin of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s religious adviser Paramjit Singh Sarna, any action (if taken) would not be against them personally.

The government has also given a one-time opportunity to the company to explain the sequence of events, as well as give its reply on the anomalies found in the now sealed mill to prevent molasses spillage.

Thus only the senior officers of the mill are expected to appear and represent the company before the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) chairman, KS Pannu, in Patiala on Thursday.

Official sources have told The Tribune that while the probe report mentions that the spillage was “accidental and not caused by any human error”, the company has been asked to explain why the molasses was stored in a cement tank, and not in a steel tank. The storage and sale of molasses in a sugar mill is to be monitored by the Excise and Taxation Department, which gets excise duty on the sale of molasses.

The mill has also violated the provisions of the Canal and Drainage Act, 1873, as molasses was first released in the Kahnuwan drain that flows just along the mill, from where it entered into the Beas.

Sources say the company will be asked to bear the entire cost of flushing out the molasses from the Beas, right up to its tail end. While 3,000 cusecs of water has been released thrice from the Pong and Ranjit Sagar dams to flush out molasses, another 1,000 cusecs of water was released on Wednesday.

Since Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore had raised concern over the issue of the Beas getting polluted, fatality of fish and the polluted water reaching Rajasthan, the CM will be submitting a report to the Governor in the next two days, it is learnt.

Chandigarh: Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday warned against any laxity or leniency in the matter of the leakage of molasses into the Beas. He directed the agencies concerned to vigorously pursue legal and penal action against the offenders.

Reviewing the progress of the action taken so far by various government agencies, the Chief Minister also sought a detailed report by Thursday from the Department of Environment on the inquiry initiated into the incident, which had damaged aquatic life and polluted the river as well as disturbed the canal-based water supply in Faridkot, Muktsar and Fazilka districts.

The CM has directed the officials to expedite the investigations so that the responsibility for the act could be pinned and the guilty could be brought to book at the earliest.

The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) is scheduled to hold a formal hearing into the matter on May 24, he said, adding that prosecution had already been initiated by the Wildlife Department for the loss of aquatic life.

Similarly, the Department of Water Resources had also initiated legal proceedings against the offender distillery under the Canal and Drainage Act.

He also reviewed the steps being taken to check the quality of the canal water being supplied in the affected areas. As per reports based on samples collected by the PPCB at different places, the quality of raw canal water had almost normalised.

However, the CM has ordered immediate release of additional fresh water into the Beas to further stabilise the situation.

The Departments of Water Supply and Sanitation and Local Government are continuing with regular testing of water quality, both in the waterworks and canals. — TNS