NGT panel orders closure of Dera Bassi polluting unit

Aparna Banerji

Tribune news service

Jalandhar, March 20

Closure of a pharmaceutical unit in Dera Bassi, Gurdaspur, has been ordered by the monitoring committee formulated by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to look into the pollution of the Sutlej and the Beas rivers in the state.

Taking strict note of the non-compliance of majority of sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the state, the committee has also told departments to streamline STPs functioning within a month, after which erring officials will be acted upon. These decisions were taken in the first meeting of the monitoring committee, under newly appointed chairman Justice Pritam Pal (retd) on Wednesday.

The committee will visit STPs on February 26 and also take samples of water that have been notorious for being left arsenic-laden and untreated despite various raps from the NGT. Taking officials of the PPCB and the local bodies to task for non-compliance of STPs, the committee said any future lapses would invite strict action.

Sources said while the committee had noted that only SBR (sequencing batch reactor) technology-based STPs in the state were compliant, the rest of the STPs had not been brought to order despite repeated directions on the same by the NGT. Meanwhile, the committee also ordered the closure of the Dera Bassi-based pharmaceutical company, dumping toxic chemicals into the ground causing major water contamination threat in the state.

The committee also noted the present technology in the majority of the STPs of the state was inadequate to treat F-coli polluting the groundwater which was a source of major diseases.

Balbir Singh Seechewal, a member of the monitoring committee, while talking to The Tribune, said, “A deadline has been provided to various departments to set non-functional STPs in working order. The committee head, Justice Pritam Singh (retd) along with members will also visit affected areas and STPs from which samples will also be taken.”

While Justice Pritam Pal (retd) is the chairperson of the committee, Subodh Agrawal, Babu Ram, Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal, A Sudhakar, and J Babu are its members.

The NGT had appointed Justice Pritam Pal, the head of the committee, monitoring pollution in the Ghaggar, as the head of the monitoring committee looking into the pollution in the Sutlej and the Beas on February 28.

Issue of erring local bodies officials not taken up

While sources said pressure is being built on local bodies to name officials who have erred in maintaining the upkeep of various STPs in the state, the matter was not taken up during the meeting on February 20. Sources said responsibility, however, was likely to be fixed after monitoring committee members themselves visit the STPs and hold sampling of water. Those not fixing the non-functional STPs till the one-month deadline would be acted against.