Chandigarh seeks report on pollution in Sukhna choe and N-choe

CHANDIGARH: While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had expressed displeasure over improving solid waste management in city, the UT administration has now sought progress report from the municipal corporation and the UT engineering department on cleaning of Sukhna choe and N-choe.
A senior UT official said as the Punjab and Haryana high court, National Green Tribunal and Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee, (CPCC) is keeping an eye on the solid waste management and pollution in seasonal rivulets in city, therefore the MC and engineering department was asked to submit progress report on cleaning of Sukhna choe and N choe.
The NGT had already asked the UT administration to submit a reply on the steps taken to stop polluting in Sukhna choe, which carries the water to Ghaggar river.
In August last year, taking a suo motu cognisance of media reports on pollution in Ghaggar river, the NGT had directed the chief secretaries of Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh to constitute a special task force (STF) to clean the river.
In its order issued on August 7, the NGT had also called for a stern civil and criminal action against officials of the pollution control boards of these states for “shielding the violators”. Thereafter, the NGT committee in Chandigarh along with officials of CPCC had visited various points of Sukhna choe in Chandigarh territory and had observed pollution in the choe.
The NGT in its order had said, “The Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 provides for standards for the emission for discharge of pollutants. For different industries, the standards are laid down in Schedule I. The findings of the joint inspection report are that values of various parameters such as BOD, TSS, faecal coliform, lead and iron were beyond permissible limits at most of the locations in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh.”
“It is, thus, fully established that there is a failure on the part of the statutory authorities specially the pollution control boards to perform their duties. Under the statutory scheme, the boards are required to prosecute all those who may be responsible for discharging effluents beyond standards and also to close all commercial establishments which are discharging such effluents apart from other penal measures required to be taken. They have, failed to uphold the rule of law in spite of adequate powers given to them,” the NGT order further stated.
“It is high time that their composition and manning is considered by the higher authorities and their accountability fixed by taking civil and criminal action against not only violations of law but all those responsible for failure of their duties in taking action or shielding the culprits and thereby adversely affecting the environment and health of the inhabitants,” the tribunal had said.
In 2016, the NGT had accepted the case from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) about the pollution in the Ghaggar river and its tributaries.
The seasonal river originates in the Shivalik Hills of Himachal Pradesh and flows through Punjab and Haryana before entering Rajasthan. The NHRC had taken suo motu cognisance of 2014 media reports about how in Punjab and Haryana, people couldn’t even stand near the foul-smelling river, let alone use its water for irrigation or drinking.
It came out in hearings that the river received civic effluents and factory waste in these states.
STPs upgradation
The UT in its action plan had submitted that they will upgrade all sewage treatment plants (STPs) in city by 2022, but the NGT panel had directed the UT to complete the job by 2020. Similarly, the UT had submitted that they will complete STP in Kishangarh by 2022 to stop the pollution in Sukhna choe, but NGT panel directed to complete the work within similar deadline of 2020.