Need mass movement to save Punjab’s environment: Experts

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 13

A seminar on environmental challenges, organised at Nirmal Kutiya, on the banks of the Kali Bein, called for a mass movement to save Punjab’s environment.

The chief guest on the occasion, National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said: “People are falling prey to diseases due to impure air, water and food. If people do not change their lifestyle, everything will be destroyed.”

Stressing clean environment is the right of every human, he appreciated the work done by Rajya Sabha MP and environmentalist Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal in the field of environment. He said Seechewal model was a humanitarian idea.

Referring to the environmental compensation of Rs 2,080 crore to the Punjab Government, he said this was not a fine, but the compensation for the damage done to the environment and a way of making the state governments aware. Justice Goel said that the amount would be spent on improving the environment.

Addressing the programme, Seechewal said a supply of 135 litres of drinking water per person would help the treatment plants of the cities run efficiently. He said there had been many violations of the Water Act, 1974, but the Punjab Pollution Control Board had not punished anyone under this Act. He said people of Punjab were suffering from cancer and other dreadful diseases due to polluted environment.

In his address, Justice Pritam Pal said during the work of the monitoring committee, he had imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on a former minister of Haryana, where poisonous water was going into the Saraswati river. Justice Jasbir Singh said if our environment was clean then we would not need hospitals. Former Punjab Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal said unless the administrative officers work with the will, improvement in the environment was not possible. Babu Ram, a senior member of the monitoring committee, said there were 143 garbage dumps across the state; and the

one at Ludhiana is as tall as Qutub Minar over an area of more than 50 acres. Adarsh Paul Vij, Chairman, Punjab Pollution Control Board also spoke on the occasion.

At the end of the programme, guests were honoured by environmentalist Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal and they were also given saplings. After the seminar, Justice Goel and other guests also visited Seechewal models at Seechewal village and Talwandi Madho. In one of the models, the water is cleaned and used for agriculture, in the other, a pond has been converted into a beautiful lake and parks have been built around it. After this he also visited the nursery and planted saplings.

Rs 2K-cr compensation to make govt alert

The imposition of environmental compensation of Rs 2,080 crore on the Punjab Government was not a fine, but a way of making it aware of its responsibilities towards the citizens. — Justice AK Goel, NGT Chairperson

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#Environment #National Green Tribunal NGT