Green panel sees red on pollution

Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 12

Taking a serious view of pollution in the city, a panel formed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), headed by Justice Pritam Pal, a former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, has directed the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee (CPCC) to impose environment compensation charges on the local Municipal Corporation if its sewage treatment plants (STPs) fail to meet the prescribed parameters.

Sources said the MC had five STPs. Of these, three were facing problems due to outdated technology. While MC officials claimed that all STPs would be upgraded by 2021, the panel insisted on upgrading these before the deadline.

Justice Pritam Pal today reviewed the progress and steps taken by the UT Administration and the MC to prevent pollution in Sukhna Lake and the N choe. The NGT had also asked the panel to check pollution in the Ghaggar and restore its water quality. Justice Pritam Pal reviewed the action plan of Haryana and Punjab for cleaning the Ghaggar. The committee will submit an interim report to the tribunal.

The Ghaggar, which orginates from the Shivaliks in Himachal Pradesh, gets polluted at several places in Punjab and Haryana.

The panel also took a serious view of an incinerator in the city not meeting the prescribed norms. After it was brought to his notice that the incinerator of the Sector 16 hospital was not meeting the norms, he directed the officials concerned to close all such incinerators.

The panel directed the CPCC and MC officials to conduct a joint survey to check the flow of sewage into the N choe and plug all such leakages. The MC claims it has already plugged leakages and issued notices to over 25 shops, which have illegally connected the sewerage with the storm water system.

The MC swung into action after the CPCC issued a notice to it acting on a report published in these columns, which highlighted that sewage was polluting the N choe and raising a big stink at Shanti Kunj and Rose Garden. CPCC teams had found leakages in sewer lines in at least six places in the city.

GMSH-16 incinerator faces closure

A panel formed by the NGT also took a serious view of an incinerator in the city not meeting the prescribed norms. After it was brought to the notice of the panel head, Justice Pritam Pal, a former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, that the incinerator of the Sector 16 hospital was not meeting the norms, he directed the officials concerned to close all such incinerators.