Deadline row likely to delay slaughter house rendering plant

Ludhiana: The issue of rendering plant at the slaughter house of the civic body on Hambran Road is not going to get resolved easily as Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) officials claimed that for this plant the civic body had time till December end. But the MC officials say it is not possible to meet this deadline because they have not started anything right now. They claimed that they had demanded at least six months for the same. However, the PPCB officials claimed that they could give the consent to operate this slaughter house on temporary basis, that too if the civic body would give undertaking that they they would make suitable arrangements for the waste.
The civic body had completed the modernisation of the slaughter house in January and since then it has been waiting for its inauguration. At first the civic body took time in finalisation of a contractor for operation and maintenance and then due to Covid-19 they could not start the same. Now, when they were in the process to start it, the issue of a rendering plant came up. The rendering plant is a must for the management of waste being generated from the slaughter house.
On this issue the PPCB and MC officials are already blaming each other. The PPCB claims that it was mentioned initially that the plant was a must while civic body officials had said they had no information about any such plant since the beginning of the process.
Member secretary of the PPCB, Karunesh Garg, said, “The MC will have to complete the installation of the rendering plant in the slaughter house by December end. They can run the slaughter house but before that they will have to give in writing that the waste will not be disposed of in the sewerage and will be done awqy with in a proper way.” He said the civic body would have to ensure that the waste being generated from the slaughter house should not pollute the environment in any way.
However, on the other hand senior veterinary officer Dr YP Singh said, “We are waiting for the letter from the PPCB over this issue but three months are not sufficient for the plant. As of now it is not decided who will install the plant, whether the MC or the contractor, who has been hired for its operation and maintenance.” He said, moreover, they were yet to sign an agreement with the contractor and its functioning would also take at least one month to start.