BATHINDA: The pressure exerted by Gurmeet Singh, the controversial political secretary in the Punjab Chief Minister. Beant Singh, in restoring power supply to a paper mill. pollution from which is stated to be causing Wter-bome discos in Bathinda, has come to light.
The power supply to the masses Shreyans Paper Mills Limited. Ahmedgarh, owned by DK. Oswal. was disconnected on the direction of the Punjab Pollution Control Board(PPCB) for polluting the Bathinda branch of the Sirhind canal. The Board had said in its report that the paper mill was discharging about 8,000 kilo liters of effluents per day into the canal and had not taken steps to check the pollution despite repeated warnings.
A letter on the subject was written by the Chief Engineer (South), Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) to the Member (Operations), PSEB, with copies to Gurmeet Singh and the PPCB, in which he had stated that the Political Secretary to the CM had rang me up and conveyed, that supply to industrial unit at Ahmadgarh, owned by D.K. Oswal, be restored immediately and necessary instructions in this regard shall be issued by the Principal Secretary to Chief Minister. Accordingly the supply to this unit, which was disconnected on Nov 7, 94 on the advice of the Chairman, PPCB, Patiala, has been restored Nov. 19,947
“The instructions from the Principal Secretary are yet to land, according to official sources in the PSEB and the PPCB, Gurmeet Singh was not avail able for comments.
The town and its surrounding areas are in the grip of water-borne discuses like gastroenteritis and jaundice due to polluted water supply for the last few weeks from the Bathinda branch of the Sirhind canal. A large number of patients have reported in government and private hospitals complaining of pain in stomach and chest. They complain that they had been receiving yellowish colored water supply during the last few weeks
Jagroop Singh Gill, president of the Municipal Council, Bhatinda, said that the Council shall shortly move the High Court to get a stay order in favor of the paper mill vacated, Kowal Krishan Aggarwal, general secretary of the local unit of Congress, said that he would lead a jatha of local residents to Mandi Ahmedgarh to gherao the paper mill Madan Lal Kapoor, president of the Punjab Beopar Mandaland R.D. Guptia, president, Bathinda Beopar Mandal. have also urged the state government to take action against the management of the paper mill for violating environ mental laws.
The decision to disconnect the power supply to the paper mill was taken on October 25, 1994 by the PPCB Board following the vacation of a stay order granted upto April 30, 1994
The Board noted that “it appears that the industry is not making sincere efforts to treat its effluents and has miserably failed to achieve prescribed standards. It also pointed out that the mill had failed to divert the entire fluent for irrigation and forestry purposes and was polluting the Sirhind canal from which water is supplied to many quire and urban water supply schemes downstream. It said that there was an “abnormal difference in the analysis results carried out by the industry and the board’s laboratory.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 28, 1995
