The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday expressed serious concern over the rising pollution level in river waters as it adversely affects the human and aquatic life in the region. A party delegation led by Kisan Wing chief and Kotkapura MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan met Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore and submitted a memorandum in this regard. The delegation also had representatives of the Naroa Punjab Manch, a joint front comprising more than 50 NGOs working on the quality of river waters.
In the memorandum, the delegation apprised the governor about the waters of Sutlej and Beas rivers being directly supplied to hundreds of cities, towns and villages of Punjab and Rajasthan via canal system from Harike Pattan in Amritsar (Punjab), saying that more than one-crore people depended on these rivers for their drinking water needs.
It said the quality of water being supplied through these canals was highly polluted and not fit for human consumption, adding that untreated effluents from industries and sewage from urban local pockets at various points in Punjab, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh was wreaking havoc. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had directed the state governments to prepare an action plan to improve the quality of river waters and implement them within a time frame, but the states were not doing their bit in this regard, it added.