New Focal Point area in need of STP

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 3

The government is collecting revenue by increasing taxes, but it has miserably failed to provide amenities at the New Focal Point on Mehta Road near Vallah.

The beautifully planned industrial area has become a victim of poor sewerage disposal. The Punjab State Industrial Export Corporation (PSIEC) is the caretaker of the Focal Point. The untreated trade effluent of the industry is being dumped in low lying vacant plots which have become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Standing sewerage waste emanates unbearable stench.

Moreover, the PSIEC is discharging the effluent in an open drain in the area which has become highly polluted. The same water flows into an open drain situated at the backside of the Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Vallah and adjacent fields, damaging and poisoning the irrigable land.

Amritsar New Focal Point Industries Association chairman Raman Gupta in a communiqué to the PSIEC managing director said despite several communications and reminders, the PSIEC never bothered to take stock of the situation. He recalled that in 2015, the PSIEC had even announced to set the installation of sewage treatment plant (STP) in the same industrial sector. However, the announcement never materialised.

The area industrialists have long been demanding that one STP and a common treatment plant (CTP) should be set up. An STP is proposed in the original blueprint of the Focal Point. The sewerage discharge system installed at the Focal Point has not been working as per its requirement and is also not competent to handle the discharge from the industry. The polluted water is invariably standing all around the Focal Point and vacant plots have become pools of dirty water, which germinates mosquitoes and causes diseases.