Punjab achieves 100% door-to-door collection of solid waste: Chief Secy

Chandigarh, February 7

Punjab has achieved almost 100 per cent door-to-door collection and segregation of municipal solid waste, Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan said on Sunday.

Besides, the state has prepared 14 district environment plans to address the problem of pollution at the district level.

The Chief Secretary said she has assured the NGT-appointed monitoring committee for the Sutlej and Beas rivers, under the chairmanship of Justice Jasbir Singh (retd), that the state was committed to provide clean and potable water to the residents.

Mahajan also assured that the state would intensify its efforts for the management of solid waste, comprising biomedical and plastic.

The panel, comprising former Chief Secretary S.C. Aggarwal, environmentalist Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal (both members) and technical expert Babu Ram, briefed the Chief Secretary about environment related issues concerning the state with specific reference to improving the water quality in the rivers and waste management in urban and rural areas.

The committee was constituted on the behest of the National Green Tribunal to specifically look into various environmental issues in 2019.

The most significant achievement in the last two years was the improvement in the water quality to the desired level (Class-B) in two stretches of the Beas river, which has become the only river in the entire country to achieve such standards, an official statement said.

Apart from this, the work to the tune of Rs 500 crore, pertaining to setting up of sewage treatment plants and effluent treatment plants for dairy waste to address the problem of pollution in the Budha nullah, one of the dirtiest tributaries of the Sutlej river, passing through most parts of Ludhiana.

It is expected that after commissioning of these plants, the river water quality of the Sutlej will improve significantly.

Besides, 105 MLD capacity common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) have been set up to check industrial pollutants entering into Sutlej river. IANS