The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has informed the Punjab and Haryana high court that it would take four months to prepare a report on quality of discharge of effluent from the sewage treatment plants (STPs) in Punjab. “..to collect samples from the 128 STPs, sampling process has already been initiated. The entire process of collection of samples, their incubation and test results is likely to take a period of four months,” the CPCB counsel told the court.
The court was on September 30 hearing a plea, filed in January by a Mohali school, claiming that it had been facing serious problems of solid and sewer waste accumulation since 2022, but no remedial steps are being taken. Taking a serious note of the allegations, the court had subsequently sought data about the STPs in the state and also if discharge from these units meet environmental norms.
The CPCB was roped in August as it came to light that the faecal content exceeded up to 90 lakh per 100 ml unit against the permissible limit of 1,000 per 100 ml at some points when samples were taken earlier this year.
State gets 2 days to deposit ₹12 crore
The high court had in August also ordered that ₹12 crore be deposited by the state with the high court registry, to be kept as security for implementation of any suggestion that may be made by the CPCB, which the state failed to deposit. The state’s counsel had brought a demand draft of the said amount and had requested that the fund be allowed to be deposited into an escrow account considering that a private agency has already been engaged by the state for operation and maintenance of the STPs.
{{/usCountry}}The high court had in August also ordered that ₹12 crore be deposited by the state with the high court registry, to be kept as security for implementation of any suggestion that may be made by the CPCB, which the state failed to deposit. The state’s counsel had brought a demand draft of the said amount and had requested that the fund be allowed to be deposited into an escrow account considering that a private agency has already been engaged by the state for operation and maintenance of the STPs.
{{/usCountry}}However, the high court did not agree, observing that ex facie it was of the opinion that an investigation needs to be conducted into the operation and maintenance of these STPs and payments made in lieu of that as discharge from these plants was not as per the norms. However, it did not pass any order in this regard.
Now, the Punjab government has been told that amount be deposited within two days with high court and in case of failure, additional sum of ₹1 crore per day be deposited beyond this period.