CM launches STP, credit war breaks out among parties

LUDHIANA: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday formally inaugurated the state’s biggest sewage treatment plant of 225 MLD capacity at Jamalpur in Ludhiana as part of Buddha Nullah rejuvenation project. Mann also inaugurated other projects with a total outlay of Rs 315.5 crore for cleaning and rejuvenation of the polluted water body.
Addressing a gathering, the chief minister expressed deep concern over pollution in Buddha Nullah and said the newly constructed STP will be instrumental in the cleaning of the water body in Ludhiana. The STP is likely to provide relief to areas falling under Ludhiana East constituency and some portions of Ludhiana Central constituency which had been suffering from sewerage blockage and overflow due to improper treatment of sewage.
With the opening of the STP, only treated water will flow into Buddha Nullah. AAP MLA Daljit Grewal said, “The areas in Ludhiana East constituency used to get drowned due to non-functional STP of 48 MLD capacity. But the new STP will help get rid of problems of sewerage choking and overflow.”
Meanwhile, Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board officials claimed that a trial run of the STP was under way for the past almost a month, and results will be visible in the next two months. Officials were still clueless about use of this treated water for other activities. The inauguration of 225 MLD STP at Jamalpur by the CM kicked off a credit war among political parties.
The CM counted it as an AAP achievement for taking pollution of water bodies seriously and working on this direction “unlike the previous governments who did nothing in this regard”. The opposition parties condemned Mann’s statements, saying that previous governments too attempted to make Buddha Dariya pollution free.
While former MLA and district Congress president Sanjay Talwar claimed that Buddha Dariya rejuvenation project was started in Congress regime, BJP senior leader Parveen Bansal said the project became possible only because of the funding from the Centre. Former SAD MLA Ranjit Singh Dhillon said, “the Jamalpur STP was first installed for treating 48 MLD water during the SAD government, and now its capacity has been increased.
The AAP government did not arrange for funds nor they got land for project. The CM is just trying to divert the attention of voters from their failures.” CM Mann said, “Pollution in Buddha Nullah left its impact till villages of Fazilka through Satluj and I being an MP kept on raising the issue.
Now when public gave me a chance to make decisions, my priority was to make Buddha Dariya pollution free. This STP got completed and rest of the project will also get completed. Very soon, this water body will have crystal clear water.” The Rs 650-crore Buddha Dariya rejuvenation project was conceived under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Smart City scheme. The state government will spend Rs 392 crore and the central government will give a grant of Rs 258 crore for the project.