Polluted river waters: Govt needs to take an urgent call to check menace: Bhagwant Mann

Chandigarh, May 2

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has expressed its shock and dismay over the killing of thousands of fish and other waterfowls due to excessive pollution levels in the river waters of Rajasthan and Sirhind feeder canals in the area. The menace has not only led to serious medical conditions among the people living in their close proximity, but had also been posing a potential danger to the aquatic life.

Punjab Unit chief of the party and Sangrur Member of Parliament (MP), Bhagwant Mann said in a statement issued from party office in Chandigarh on Thursday that it was disgusting to know that the people of the region were forced to drink water carrying highly toxic content that flows into these rivers while the government in the saddle was sleeping over the issue involving human lives. He said that it was obligatory on the part of the state government to provide safe drinking water to the people.

The AAP leader said that, besides posing a potential danger to the lives of the people residing in the nearby villages, who, he said, were falling prey to certain life-threatening diseases, like cancer, asthma and other water-borne diseases. This had badly affected the aquatic life in the region, he further said.

Mann said the abundance of pollutants and industrial waste flowing out of industries in Jalandhar and Ludhiana areas through Buddha Nallah into the Sutlej and Beas rivers was being consumed by the residents of the nearby areas. This, he lamented, was wreaking havoc on the lives of the people with the sleepy dispensation turning a blind eye to the menace.

Quoting a report on the status of pollution levels in these rivers and the quality of water being supplied to the residents of the area, he claimed that the water being supplied in the adjoining area was categorized as c-grade, which was a matter of grave concern.

Interestingly though, he said, the water never ever failed the quality check from the Pollution Control Board. This, he said, revealed the government’s connivance with the high and mighty industrialists, who feel safe under the patronage of their political masters.

The party chief said that AAP had been flagging the issue of rising levels of pollution in the river water but nothing had come out of the discourse, adding that the party leaders had broached the issue with those at the helms of affairs, be it the civil dispensation or the NGT but to no avail.

The AAP said the government should come out of its cozy confines and address the issue sooner than later, so that precious lives could be saved from perishing. He asked the government to initiate stringent action against those industrialists and factory owners found on the wrong side of the fence. He also urged the government to ensure that the residents were supplied clean drinking water.