Beas incident result of record cane production this year: Capt
CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday claimed that the incident involving the spill of molasses from a Gurdaspur sugar mill into the Beas was due to record production of sugarcane this season.
Chairing a high-level meeting to review the situation in the wake of the spill, he said the Centre also needs to ensure that the right amount of cane is produced and sold to the sugar mills.
Thousands of fish in the river died after molasses leaked from a sugar mill in Gurdaspur district on May 17.
Also, he ordered a crackdown on polluting industries in the state, saying there will be stringent enforcement of rules and regulations governing the discharge of effluents into the rivers.
The CM said as promised by him in the Vidhan Sabha earlier neither the industries nor the municipalities will be allowed to flow effluents into the rivers without treating them.
He instructed the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) to identify industrial units found discharging untreated waste into the rivers and take action against them for putting the health of people at risk.
He directed the board to closely monitor inflow of industrial effluents in the rivers at Buddah Nullah in Ludhiana, Kala Sanghean drain in Jalandhar, Patiala and Amritsar. He also directed the chief secretary to prepare a comprehensive river cleaning plan with a timeline for its implementation.
Lambasting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira for playing politics over the issue of leakage, saying his government was seriously tackling the pollution in a systematic manner.
Lashing out at the erstwhile SAD-BJP government for making a mess of the state during their 10-year tenure, the CM said it would take time to streamline things, but all problems were being tackled one by one.
He pointed out that when his government took over, none of the 64 water and sewage treatment plants in the state was functional.
The number of functional units had gone up to 18 now and 40 of these plants will become operational by the end of the year, he said.