Activists raise questions as dairies not being shifted outside Ludhiana city limits

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 26

As untreated waste from dairies at Haibowal and Tajpur Road is still being dumped openly into the Buddha Nullah, environmental activists raised questions over the role of the departments concerned for not making concrete efforts for the shifting of dairies outside the MC limits.

The MC had earlier planned to shift the dairies outside the city limits but the plan has not implemented till date. The civic body is also working on another plan to set up effluent treatment plants to handle the dairy waste, as per information.

The ‘illegal’ practice of dumping the untreated waste from hundreds of dairies into the Buddha Nullah is going on for many years. Thus, the activists have been demanding to shift the dairies outside the MC limits and away from the nullah.

Col JS Gill (retd), a member of the Special Task Force for Buddha Nullah, said the authorities concerned must ensure early shifting of the dairies outside the city limits. “Even if effluent treatments plants are to be set up at dairy complexes here, it would not be a permanent solution. The city is expanding and the number of dairies may increase too. The only solution is shifting of dairies away from the city and drain”, he said.

“The dairies should not be located along or near the nullah. If the government wants to make the Rejuvenation of Buddha Nullah project successful, all dairies should be shifted away from the drain and outside the MC limits. The issue was discussed in meetings many times in the past but the process to shift them is being delayed,” he said.

A committee in 2020 had made a proposal to shift the dairies to Gorsian Kadar Baksh village but the village panchayat and residents had refused to give the village land for setting up dairies.

Jaskirat Singh, a member of a public action committee, said: “We have been demanding that the dairies should only be shifted outside the city limits. The waste from dairies is being dumped in the nullah for a long period. If the government can’t shift them to one site, it should identify multiple sites outside the city limits for shifting

the dairies in different clusters. We will keep raising our demand regarding the same.”

Member secretary of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), Punjab, Krunesh Garg said the MC had told the board that it would ensure treatment of the dairy waste at existing dairy complexes of the city.