CHANDIGARH : The UT administration has written a letter to the Punjab government, asking it to stop the flow of untreated water from Kansal village into the forest area of Chandigarh. The letter was written by the administration in continuation of an earlier letter written last year.
The issue was raised by the UT last year following former administrator VP Singh Badnore taking serious view of the untreated sewage flowing from Kansal into the forest area behind Sukhna Lake, which was leading to the contamination of the water body. He had directed the UT forest and wildlife department to take up the matter with the Punjab government.
In the latest letter written to the additional chief secretary (forests), Punjab, and the additional chief secretary (environment), UT chief conservator of forests (CCF) Debendra Dalai has stated that the administration wanted to draw their attention towards two critical issues of the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) around Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary in the area falling in Punjab and of the untreated water of Kansal village draining into the forest area of UT. Dalai asked for early resolution of the issues.
The UT also stated that to date no action has been taken by the Punjab government and that the matter was also raised by Badnore during the third meeting of the UT Chandigarh Wetlands Authority held on June 17, 2021. In the meeting, Badnore, who was also the chairperson of the authority, had expressed concern over the issue and members unanimously agreed to take up the matter with the departments concerned of the Punjab go-vernment.
The minutes of the meeting said there was no treatment plant for the sewage of Nayagaon and Kansal villages of Punjab and all of it was entering the forest area of UT between Rock Garden and Sukhna Lake, thereby damaging the local ecology and contaminating the water body. The UT has several times asked Punjab to construct and operationalise sewage treatment plant (STP), but no concrete action has been taken, the minutes added.
Despite repeated reminders, the governments of the neighbouring states have failed to stop sewage flow from Nayagaon and Kansal villages of Punjab and Saketri and Madadevpur of Haryana. To deal with the sewage of Kansal and Nayagaon, the administration had recently chalked out a proposal to construct a new treatment plant at Kishangarh.
