In a bid to make River Satluj 100% pollution free, the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today envisaged technical support from Engineers India Limited (EIL) for the cleaning of Buddha Nullah in Ludhiana district, which was posing a biggest threat to the state’s environment and ecological balance.The Chief Minister who held a detailed meeting with the top brass of EIL led by its Chairman cum managing Director (CMD) Mr. AK Purwaha, sought the latest and cost effective technology for the cleaning of Buddha Nullah so as to recycle its polluted water for irrigational purposes. He asked the CMD of EIL to dispatch its technical team to visit Buddha Nullah next week along with the officers of the state government, Punjab Pollution Control Board and Municipal Corporation Ludhiana, to study and recommend a viable technology for its cleaning.
On the occasion, the EIL delegation made a power point presentation to apprise the Chief Minister about their gigantic task for abatement of pollution in River Yamuna, through a new technology of interceptor sewerage along Najafgarh supplementary and Shahdara drains in the National Capital Region of Delhi. The team suggested that similar technology would be most suited in all probability in case of Buddha Nullah because the ground realities in both the situations were almost same except that the BOD level in Yamuna was exceptionally high as compared to Buddha Nullah.
The Chief Minister also sought a time tested technology from EIL for the cleaning of village ponds across the state to ensure the recycling of waste water for irrigational purposes on one hand and to make these villages as environment friendly and pollution free on the other. He also asked for technological support and assistance from EIL for the removal of sullage from these ponds too.Responding to the issue of Pond cleaning, Mr. Purwaha pledged all technical and consultative support to the state government to get rid to this long pending problem, which was creating huge hindrance in the development of these villages besides posing a major Health hazard also. He suggested a slew of short and long term measures for cleaning of Buddha Nullah citing Health check and augmentation of existing STPs by improving technology besides setting new STPs at Ludhiana as short term measures. Mr. Purwaha pleaded for implementation of Interceptor Sewerage System trapping all untreated flows into Buddha Nullah and setting up newly purposed STPs at suitable locations as long term measures.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by his Principal Secretary Mr. SK Sandhu, Secretary Local Government Mr. Ashok Gupta, Secretary Irrigation Mr. KS Pannu, CEO Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board Mr. DK Tiwari, Technical Advisor to Chief Minister Major General (Retd.) VK Bhatt and Member Secretary Punjab Pollution Control Board Mr. Babu Lal.The EIL team was represented by Director Projects Mr. Deepak Moudgill, Head of Department (Environment) Mr. JK Joshi, Head of Department (Water and Waste Management) Mr. Sanjay Mukherjee and Deputy General Manager Mr. Amitabh Budhiraja.