atiala February 6:
Environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal has claimed that the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and the state government need to pull up their socks if they are at all serious about controlling pollution and checking the flow of untreated waste in water channels.
Meanwhile, the PPCB has said that they are doing their best and cannot please everyone as the issue has been taken up at the Chief Minister’s level for best possible results. Seechewal has shown his resentment over the “slow functioning of the PPCB in checking the flow of pollutants” in the state rivers and choes and also “its helplessness in summoning top bureaucrats for failing” to check increasing pollution. Seechewal, an appointed member of PPCB, was in Patiala to attend a meeting with PPCB officials.
PPCB chairman Rajat Aggarwal said the board was doing everything possible to check 137 councils and five municipal corporations discharging their waste, but summoning officials was not the right solution. “We want the industry, councils and the entire system to work but by following all norms. We cannot just lock everything,” he clarified, adding that Seechewal was respectable but certain things had to work as per government guidelines.
“Apart from checking industrial pollution, there is ample need to check the pollution being created by sewer disposal of municipal corporations, councils and solid waste. The PPCB is busy with the industrialists and the untreated waste from these industries goes unchecked in water bodies in the state,” he told reporters. “The PPCB should summon the Secretary, Local Bodies, and other officials and ensure that the untreated waste is not thrown in water channels,” he added.
As per records available with the media, Seechewal expressed his anguish over the issue that matters raised by him were not taken seriously and till the time the PPCB takes serious action on those particular matters, they “should not be confirmed” as completed. “To make it simple, we want that video recording of the entire proceedings should be made and these should be made available for the common man so as to make the working more transparent,” he added.
PPCB Member Secretary Babu Ram claimed that the board had been working very hard and concrete results were some time away. “We are paying personal attention and working day and night to implement our schemes. However, if even after putting in so much, Seechewal is not happy, they cannot do anything about it,” he stated.
Environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal has claimed that the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and the state government need to pull up their socks if they are at all serious about controlling pollution and checking the flow of untreated waste in water channels.
Meanwhile, the PPCB has said that they are doing their best and cannot please everyone as the issue has been taken up at the Chief Minister’s level for best possible results. Seechewal has shown his resentment over the “slow functioning of the PPCB in checking the flow of pollutants” in the state rivers and choes and also “its helplessness in summoning top bureaucrats for failing” to check increasing pollution. Seechewal, an appointed member of PPCB, was in Patiala to attend a meeting with PPCB officials.
PPCB chairman Rajat Aggarwal said the board was doing everything possible to check 137 councils and five municipal corporations discharging their waste, but summoning officials was not the right solution. “We want the industry, councils and the entire system to work but by following all norms. We cannot just lock everything,” he clarified, adding that Seechewal was respectable but certain things had to work as per government guidelines.
“Apart from checking industrial pollution, there is ample need to check the pollution being created by sewer disposal of municipal corporations, councils and solid waste. The PPCB is busy with the industrialists and the untreated waste from these industries goes unchecked in water bodies in the state,” he told reporters. “The PPCB should summon the Secretary, Local Bodies, and other officials and ensure that the untreated waste is not thrown in water channels,” he added.
As per records available with the media, Seechewal expressed his anguish over the issue that matters raised by him were not taken seriously and till the time the PPCB takes serious action on those particular matters, they “should not be confirmed” as completed. “To make it simple, we want that video recording of the entire proceedings should be made and these should be made available for the common man so as to make the working more transparent,” he added.
PPCB Member Secretary Babu Ram claimed that the board had been working very hard and concrete results were some time away. “We are paying personal attention and working day and night to implement our schemes. However, if even after putting in so much, Seechewal is not happy, they cannot do anything about it,” he stated.
