Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to seek his direct and personal intervention for jointly putting up an effective monitoring mechanism in place for the cleaning of river Ghaggar on top priority in a mission mode.In a letter to Virbhadra Singh, the Chief Minister apprised him about the deterioration of the water quality of river Ghaggar in Punjab, adding he said that it had been reportedly brought to his notice regarding the discharge of domestic sewage generated from the territorial jurisdiction of Himachal Pradesh area. He further pointed out that the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has conducted survey of river Ghaggar to check the various sources of pollution entering into river Ghaggar. It has also been observed that untreated/partially treated industrial effluents and sewage of Nahan, Parwanoo and Kala Amb areas enter into river Ghaggar through various streams, choes, drains etc., which were a major source of contamination of water quality of the river Ghaggar.
Henceforth, Mr. Badal immediately sought HP Chief Minister’s directions to the officers of concerned departments of Himachal Pradesh for taking immediate steps to check the discharge of untreated/partially treated domestic and industrial wastewater of the said areas into drains/nallahs which ultimately entered river Ghaggar so as to control the pollution thereof.In view of the grave situation, the Chief Minister emphasized the need to evolve a joint monitoring mechanism comprising the officers of the departments concerned from both the states for preparing a time bound joint action plan to check and control pollution in the river Ghaggar. The Chief Minister also requested the Mr. Virbhadra Singh to finalize a convenient date for a joint meeting at their level at Shimla so that a permanent solution could be found for this noble cause.Badal also mentioned that this crucial matter was of great public interest and huge significance for which they were taking every possible measure to improve the quality of water in our rivers to statutory levels.