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Abohar, April 12
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday said at Sriganganagar, 40 km from here, that he would seriously take up the canal water pollution issue with his Punjab counterpart Capt Amarinder Singh soon.
Most of the deputations that met Gehlot after he landed at Sriganganagar last evening as well as on Friday complained that highly contaminated water was flowing through Punjab after the Indira Gandhi Canal, Ferozepur feeder, Bhakra Canal system and Gang (Bikaner) canal were closed on March 25 and only partial supply remained to fill some drinking water reservoirs and for reconstruction and repair work.
Till Friday afternoon, about 500 memorandums were submitted to Gehlot highlighting different problems. He was escorted by Pradesh Congress president and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot.
Gehlot was told that the National Green Tribunal had in November 2018 clubbed cases of river pollution in Punjab, one based on a 2014 petition from Shobha Doodi and Shabnam Godara, former chairperson and vice-chairperson, respectively, of the Zila Parishad in Hanumangarh, which claimed that polluted water from the Sutlej and Beas, entering the state through the Indira Gandhi Canal, was affecting eight districts in West Rajasthan.
Earlier, a committee headed by the Central Pollution Control Board, of which the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) was a part, submitted a report saying it found that the industrial discharge was not being treated as treatment plants were not functioning.
Gehlot said a number of cancer patients in Punjab and West Rajasthan had increased manifolds in recent years for which medical specialists primarily blamed water pollution, besides unhygienic environment. “Its moral and legal duty of respective governments to prevent water contamination for which strong steps need to be taken against the erring industrial units,” he asserted.
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