Activists, dyeing units at loggerheads over Buddha Nullah pollution

Activists under the banner of Kale Pani da Morcha, a campaign initiated to clean the Buddha Nullah by social organisations, on Thursday held an interaction with the media and stated that despite orders by law-enforcing agencies to shut CETPs in Ludhiana, the plants were running unabated. On the one hand, the activists threatened to block polluted water flow from CETPs on December 3 and on the other, dyeing units labelled the NGOs as “blackmailers” and said they would not let it happen.

Two press conferences were held on Thursday in this regard, one by the morcha and the other by the dyeing units. Both of them levelled allegations against each other. The members of the NGOs maintained that the water discharged by the dyeing industry, after mixing with the Sutlej, had contaminated entire water bodies till Rajasthan, due to which the people were forced to drink contaminated water and suffering from deadly diseases.

While the dyeing industry maintained that the CETPs were duly approved by agencies and the water treatment plants were cleaning water of the dyeing units and they must not be considered as culprits as domestic and other sources were polluting the nullah and were directly discharging effluents into the nullah through MC sewers.