Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today directed the officers of the state government to evolve comprehensive planning for ensuring the cleaning of rivers in the state during the next three years. Presiding over a high level meeting of the officers of the various departments regarding the cleaning of rivers here at today at his official residence, the Chief Minister reiterated the firm commitment of the state government to clean the rivers of Punjab by ensuring zero discharge of chemical effluents, sewage and sludge water into it. He said that the state government was duty bound to protect this natural bounty of the state for which no stone would be left unturned. Laying stress on the need of adopting a holistic and complete approach towards cleaning of rivers, Badal said that no one should be allowed to pollute the river waters by throwing untreated water into them and a policy of zero tolerance needs to be adopted in such cases by taking stern action against the officers and other inpiduals found responsible for the mess. The Chief Minister also directed the officers of the Local Bodies government to check the feasibility of giving ‘Tertiary Treatment’ to the sewage and sludge water after it has been treated in the STP, so that it could be used for the domestic purposes which would not only help in checking the depletion of ground water table but would also help reducing contamination of rivers. He asked the Principal Secretary Local Bodies Department Suresh Kumar to look into the viability of the project so that the recycling of the sludge water could be undertaken in the state. Badal also directed the officers to evolve fool proof strategy for ensuring the timely completion of the work on STPs going on across the state so that the sludge water of the cities could be treated at the earliest and its optimum utilization could be made for irrigational purposes. Reviewing the progress of work regarding the water supply, sewerage facility and setting up of Sewerage Treatment Plants in 45 river towns of the state, Badal directed the officers to ensure that the work regarding it is completed in a time bound manner. Emphasizing on the need of proper planning and execution of the ongoing developmental works in these river towns, the Chief Minister asked the officers to ensure that in future the joint tenders/bids are called for conducting the work of Water Supply, sewerage and STPs along with the pre condition of medium term Operation and Maintenance of the work, so that durability and sustainability of the work could be ensured. He further said that such a strategy would help in fixing the responsibility of the concerned contactors in case any sort of shortcomings are deducted in the work besides giving basic civic amenities to the residents. Badal also directed the officers to club the petty works of small towns together and call their joint tenders so as to ensure that the developmental works in these towns are also completed in time. Prominent amongst those present in the meeting included Principal Secretary Local Government Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary Science, Technology and Environment Karan Avtar Singh, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister SK Sandhu, Special Principal Secretaries to the Chief Minister Gurkirat Kirpal Singh and Gaggandip Singh Brar, Deputy Commissioner Jalandhar Priyank Bharti and the Commissioners of Municipal Corporations of Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Patiala.