Pollution from HP industries killed fish in Swan river: PPCB

NANGAL : Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has claimed that industrial units of Himachal Pradesh were responsible for the death of fish at Swan river at Nangran village, Nangal, on the border of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh last week.

The Himachal Pradesh Pollution Control Board has been claiming that the fish had died due to the waste that the Nangal plant of Punjab Alkalies and Chemicals Limited (PACL) had discharged into the river.

“The PPCB officials have inspected all points of the Swan river from where the industrial waste of industries of Himachal Pradesh is flowing in to the river. There is no industry along the Swan river in Punjab area and it is the waste of industries located in Tahliwal and Mehatpur area of Himachal Pradesh that is polluting the river,” claimed PPCB environmental engineer Kuldeep Singh in a press conference.

“The effluents of PACL are used inside the plant after treatment,” he said, adding that the PPCB would request the state government to take up the matter with the Himachal Pradesh government.

“PPCB and the Himachal Pradesh Pollution Control Board will also form a joint team to check such incidents,” he added.

On Sunday, the Rupnagar police had seized two tankers

carrying spent wash (waste) from a brewery in the Mehatpur area in Una district of the neighbouring state.

The police have claimed that the tankers were carrying 60,000 liters of the waste for dumping near Sirsa river in the Punjab area and the drivers of tankers were carrying cattle-feed bills.

SAYS OFFICIALS HAVE INSPECTED ALL POINTS OF SWAN FROM WHERE INDUSTRIAL WASTE FROM HIMACHAL PRADESH IS FLOWING IN TO THE RIVER