Charged in water pollution case, Ludhiana Mayor, MC chief get bail

Legal Correspondent
Ludhiana, August 8

The Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Prabhjot Singh Kaleka today granted bail to city Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu and Commissioner of Municipal Corporation KP Brar in a pollution case.

However, Sanyam Aggarwal, Additional Commissioner, MC, was stated to be out of station. His personal presence was exempted for today. The court has ordered him to remain present on October 5.

Others who were granted bail include Rajinder Singh (superintending engineer), Ranbir Singh (executive engineer), Parshotam Lal (SDO) and Gurjeet Singh (manager of Jamalpur STP).

The persons were summoned by the court in a complaint moved by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) through its Assistant Environment Engineer Jaspal Singh.

The PPCB accused the MC authorities and its STP-operating agency for deliberate and intentional violation of provisions of the Water Act and causing grave damage to environment.

It has been alleged that the effluents from the sewerage and STP of Ludhiana were partly discharged into the Buddha Nullah and ultimately into the Sutlej. The water of the Sutlej was being used for irrigation and drinking purposes in the southern part of the state as well as by Rajasthan.

It has been alleged that the MC, Ludhiana, failed to fulfil its commitments of reducing water consumption and sewage discharge. It also failed to reutilise the treatment effluents and continued to discharge inadequately treated effluents into the nullah and Sutlej.

Due to this, the quality of water being flown into the bodies was deteriorating, causing severe damage to the environment and ecology.

Sandhu blames PPCB 

Accusing the PPCB of ignoring industries which discharged untreated waste into MC’s sewers, Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu said three sewage treatment plants of the city were getting damaged due to industrial effluents. “Instead of taking action against the industries discharging untreated water, the PPCB has imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on the MC