District Environment Committee meeting held to review various environmental activities

Ludhiana: There is a wide spread problem of pollution and its management in the State. A host of environmental concerns stem from the pollution in the State be it the aspect of air pollution or water pollution or noise pollution. The Punjab government has notified Action Plans for cleaning of rivers, air and waste management.

In order to review and oversee the implementation of various Action plans formulated by the Punjab Govt., a District level Environment Committee under the Chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner Ludhiana has been constituted by the State Govt. The progress of various stakeholder departments regarding the execution works for control of pollution in the District and adherence to the timelines prescribed in the Action Plan is monitored by the Committee in its regular monthly meetings.

7th meeting of District Level Environment Committee was held under the Chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner, Ludhiana Mr. Varinder Kumar Sharma with all the stakeholder departments, to review the progress for the implementation of various Action plans, to control the Pollution in the Distt. Ludhiana. ADC (D) Mr Sandeep Kumar, MC Additional Commissioner Mr Rishi Pal Singh were also present in today’s meeting held at Bachat Bhawan, here.

Er. Sandeep Bahl, SEE, PPCB rolled out the agenda for the meeting and the issues related to Control of Water pollution, Control of Air Pollution, Solid Waste Management, E-waste, biomedical waste, implementation of irrigation schemes for the use of Treated sewage and release of 200 cusec of water from Sirhind Canal into Budha Nallah were deliberated in detail.
All the concerned departments presented their activity reports in the meeting before the Committee.

Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana was directed to ensure regular and efficient operation of the sewage treatment plants installed in the city. The Chairman of the committee informed that the comprehensive plan for the rejuvenation of Budha Nallah has been prepared and directed the MCL to ensure that te new STPs are set up and the existing STPs are upgraded/rehabilitated as per the timelines prescribed in the comprehensive plan. He also directed that the solid waste dumping in Budha Nallah must be completely prohibited and penalties should be imposed on the violators. He also directed that the rendering plant of the Slaughter house must be completed within the next 2 months as per the directions of the NGT monitoring committee and the progress regarding all the above activities shall be deliberated in the next meeting of the District Environment Committee.

The Chairman of the Committee directed the MCL officials to ensure that the Municipal Solid waste is handled properly in an environmentally sound manner and directed that stringent action be taken against the burning of the municipal solid waste. It is also to be ensured that all the bulk waste generators such as institutes/marriage palaces/hotels/educational establishments shall install in house mechanical/Bio-composter in their premises in order to address the problem of solid waste management. He also directed the MCL that 100% solid waste is treated by the A to Z management facility as per the undertaking given by them and strict action shall be taken in cse of non-compliance

Soil Conservation and Water Resources Department was directed to submit the estimates for the irrigation schemes for utilization of treated effluent from all the SBR based sewage treatment plants and send the same to the CPCB so that the same may be taken up with the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Govt. of India. The progress in this regard shall be deliberated in the next meeting.

It was also informed during the meeting that the untreated domestic effluent from around 20 villages of the district is being disposed off in river Sutlej in an unauthorized manner. DDPO was directed to ensure that no untreated effluent from these villages is disposed off in Budha Nallah and proper treatment facilities are provided for the treatment of sewage generated from these villages.

Upon the enquiry of the Chairman of the Board regarding dumping of dairy waste in Buddha Nallah, Sh. Sandeep Bahl, SEE, PPCB informed that directions have been issued to the PSPCL authorities and Drainage department for closure of the dairies located outside the M.C. limits as these dairies were disposing the effluent as well as the cow dung in Budha Nallah in an unauthorized manner. The Chairman directed PSPCL authorities to comply with the directions and submit the report in the forthcoming meeting in the District Environment Committee.

The Chairman directed the District Education Officer to organize Environmental Awareness camps in the schools in order to sensitize the students on the serious issues of environmental degradations.

The Traffic police and Transport department, Ludhiana were directed to jointly carry to ensure that the pressure horn usage is completely eliminated from all the vehicles and strict action is taken against the violators and in order to address the problem of noise pollution in the city.

He directed the Punjab Pollution Control Board to ensure that the scattered dyeing units are shifted to CETP compatible area by 31.03.2021 in order to completely segregate the industrial and domestic effluent of the city.

The Chairman of the committee took a serious view of the non-presence of Regional Transport Authority and District Environment Plan in the meeting and directed that in the forthcoming meeting of District Environment Committee, the heads of all the concerned stakeholder departments must be present and in case if someone is not able to come in the meeting, he should take prior permission of the Deputy Commissioner.

During the meeting, Senior officials from Punjab Pollution Control Board, Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, Health, Drainage, Local Govt., Agriculture etc. were also present.