PPCB ‘fails’ to ensure effluent treatment plants in units

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 23

Almost over a year after the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) issued a common 90-day notice to all polluting industrial units that do not have effluent treatment plants (ETPs), the board failed to take action against the erring industries. 

The recent molasses leakage has hit the entire ecosystem of the Beas and brought to the fore the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities concerned.

On February 22, 2017, the Supreme Court had ordered to give a three-month deadline to industrial units across the country to set up ETPs, failing which they will not be allowed to operate.

Sources told The Tribune that despite repeated reminders and notices many industrial units were discharging their waste into flowing water channels and many were “using underground bores to dispose of the chemical waste”.

In February 2017, armed with the SC order, the PPCB issued a 90-day common notice that all units “not complying with the SC order will be sealed”. The PPCB informed the Local Bodies Department to start working out the modalities for making industries set up ETP plants and ensure that they are complying with the SC guidelines. Kahan Singh Pannu, Chairman, PPCB, could not be contacted.