HC orders comprehensive re-testing of uranium contamination in Punjab’s Doaba and Majha regions

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 24

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered comprehensive re-testing of water samples for uranium contamination in Punjab’s Doaba and Majha regions, following discrepancies in previous test standards.

The court also made it clear that the water testing was required to be redone in accordance with the updated World Health Organization (WHO) standards.

The direction by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Anil Kshetarpal is significant as some samples put to test in the two regions were found to be “infected with traces of uranium”.

Taking up the petition filed way back in 2010 against the Union of India and other respondents by Brijender Singh Loomba, the Bench also asked senior counsel and amicus curiae Rupinder S. Khosla to file an application for impleading the State of Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh so that samples could be tested in these areas as well.

The Bench, during the course of hearing, took note of an affidavit filed on behalf of the Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant Chief Engineer stating that 11 samples, out of 4406 tested, were found to be “infected” in districts such as Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Tarn Taran within Doaba and Majha regions. The tests were based on the standards of “60 parts per billion (PPB)” recognized by the atomic energy regulatory body.

Another report by Punjab’s Department of Local Government said three samples were found to be “infected with traces of uranium” out of 269 tested in the Doaba and Majha regions. The standard applied for testing was 30 ug/l.

Taking a note of the two reports, the Bench asserted the WHO had apparently re-fixed the standards of testing uranium content in water at 30 ug/l, while 60 µg/l-standard was previously used for testing 4406 samples.

“The the tests have to be re-conducted based on the current standards recommended by the WHO i.e. 30 ug/l. Let fresh exercise of collecting as well as testing the samples be done again by the State of Punjab in the Doaba and Majha regions,” the Bench ordered.

Virtually placing the government in dock for not taking concrete steps to ensure supply of uranium free water in the Malwa region despite lapse of nine years since the matter was brought under judicial scanner, the high court in December 2019 had not only directed the constitution of a principal secretaries’ committee, but also provision of clean potable water.

Directions were also issued to the Union of India and Punjab government to explore the possibility of deactivating the uranium. Advocate Loomba, among other things, was seeking relief for affected people and children in the villages of Bathinda, Faridkot and Ludhiana due to leakage of Uranium in water and for finding out the source of leakage.