Protest Against Water Pollution: For Captain, AAP ferries ‘dirty’ water sample from Ludhiana to Chandigarh

On reaching Chandigarh, AAP volunteers led by Dr Balbir Singh, MP Sadhu Singh, Deputy Leader of Opposition Saravjit Kaur Manuke and others started marching towards CM’s residence.

Water samples from the polluted Buddha Nullah Gurmeet Singh

In a protest against water pollution in Punjab, AAP leaders and workers Wednesday filled water samples from the polluted Buddha Nullah of Ludhiana at village Gaunspur near Hambran and left for Chandigarh where they planned to present a five-litre bottle to the CM.

“His (CM’s) OSD received it on his behalf,” said Dr Balbir Singh, AAP’s acting state president. The party had brought bottles for all MLAs, MPs and the CM with their names and constituencies written on them in which samples were collected. Dr Balbir Singh said it was the only way they found to let CM know that how residents in the villages near the Buddha Nullah were living. “We will be giving each bottle to all MLAs and MPs too so that they can realise how grave the problem is. Village residents nearby are even growing vegetables, fodder and using it in their homes. So, the polluted Buddha Nullah water is actually into our food chain. Besides, it mixes with river Sutlej and pollutes it too,” added Dr Singh.

On reaching Chandigarh, AAP volunteers led by Dr Balbir Singh, MP Sadhu Singh, Deputy Leader of Opposition Saravjit Kaur Manuke and others started marching towards CM’s residence. However, they were detained by cops from Sector-3 police station. CM’s OSD Captain Sandeep Sandhu reached the police station and informed that the CM was not available and promised to get AAP leaders appointment soon. “We handed over the memorandum and bottle containing polluted waters to him,” said Dr Balbir Singh. He said that apart from Buddha Nullah, AAP volunteers also brought samples from other polluted water bodies in Punjab which too were poured in the bottles.

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“The CM should know that how people are consuming this water. It is making people in Punjab and Rajasthan sick. They are getting cancer, hepatitis, jaundice and several other diseases. We demand a special Vidhan Sabha session to raise this issue,” he said. Every year Ludhiana Municipal Corporation dedicates at least a hundred crore for cleaning for Buddha Nullah in its budget but the problem remains unsolved.

People also use stream to dump garbage besides industries and factories in Ludhiana releasing untreated waste in it. It also carries domestic sewage waste.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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