Ngt-appointed panel misses deadline to submit report

RESIDENTS OF AROUND 120 VILLAGES IN FAZILKA DISTRICT ARE AFFECTED BY WATER CONTAMINATION

The E. coli count was reported as high as 20 times the permissible levels at various places. VIKRAM AHUJA, farm rights activist

BATHINDA: A panel formed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has missed its deadline to submit a report to the green tribunal on alleged contamination of groundwater in Fazilka district.

Observing that the state committee has not submitted the report by the August 25 deadline, the principal bench of NGT headed by its chairperson justice Adarsh Kumar Goel (retd) on Tuesday fixed the hearing in the matter on December 17.

Fazilka deputy commissioner (DC) Manpreet Singh Chhatwal, who was appointed nodal officer by the NGT, told HT on Wednesday that a delay in submission of the report was due to byelections to Jalalabad assembly segment.

“The district administration is sensitive to the issue of groundwater contamination and coordinated efforts are being made to resolve it. A database on the basis of laboratory test reports and field inspections is being prepared. But due to the byelections, the report could not be prepared. We will start compiling the report after election result of Jalalabad is declared on Thursday and submit it soon,” said Chhatwal.

Admitting a petition by a farm rights activist from Fazilka

Vikram Ahuja, the NGT on July 25 had asked the DC to submit a status report within a month.

However, Ahuja, who works with various national and international agencies, including the UN, on Wednesday blamed the state agencies for being insensitive to the urgency of the situation and causing a delay in preparing a report.

“The TDS (total dissolved solids) level in the affected villages is at an alarming level of 3,000. E Coli count was reported as high as 20 times the permissible levels at various places. Cases of waterborne diseases and skin ailments are common in the area. The health of humans and farmland is at serious risk but the state authorities have not even started making any plan to mitigate a serious problem,” said Ahuja.

The Ngt-appointed panel was asked to find out details into the complaint that untreated sewage of 21 municipalities of Punjab’s Malwa belt flowing through various drains into Fazilka district is leading to widespread contamination of groundwater in villages located along the India-pakistan border.

Backed by official data accessed through the Right to Information (RTI) Act, Ahuja blamed the Punjab State Pollution Control Board (PSPCB) and the irrigation department for ignoring poor functioning of sewage treatment plants run by various local bodies for years .

Residents of about 120 villages are affected by the water contamination that has impacted crops and natural resources of drinking water.

HT had earlier reported about farmers’ complaints that due to seepage from the Aaspal ditch extension drain, water drawn from tubewells damaged their paddy seedlings while cultivable lands were losing fertility.

The Ngt-appointed panel has roped in Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, for third-party water quality assessment. The institute has submitted a report of several samples and the final assessment is yet to be drawn.