Court takes note of unsafe water report

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 16

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued notice to the state government after taking cognisance of a letter forwarding a news report “Ground water unsafe for drinking in state” carried in these columns on November 18.

The matter was treated as suo motu or “court on its own motion” case by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Rajiv Sharma after a reader, KS Nagra, forwarded the news report to the High Court. The report, among other things, stated that the groundwater contamination in the state had reached alarming proportions. While the Majha region had high arsenic contamination, Doaba was afflicted by selenium and groundwater in Malwa has high uranium content.

The report was based on the findings of a recent research conducted by physicist Hardev Singh Virk. The study pointed out how Punjab was facing a crisis situation due to high levels of heavy metals and uranium in groundwater. The research was based on the findings of the Punjab Water Supply and Sanitation Department report, which had collected samples from 2,080 habitations.

The matter has been tagged along with another writ petition filed in 2010 by Brijinder Singh Loomba against the Union Government and other respondents and will come up for further hearing in January.