Ludhiana: 8 months on, PPCB yet to release report of water samples taken from dyeing unit
Eight months after water samples were collected from a dyeing unit in Mangat village, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) is yet to disclose the results.
Eight months after water samples were collected from a dyeing unit in Mangat village, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) is yet to disclose the results.
Expressing dismay, locals said this had led to frustration among the villagers.
The villagers, who have been holding protests and filing complaints for months, allege that the groundwater is “highly polluted and unsafe for drinking or other everyday uses”.
PPCB chief engineer Pardeep Gupta said the report has been submitted to higher authorities. He added that a study on the groundwater in Mangat village has been commissioned to get a better understanding of the situation.
He highlighted that according to their findings, the dyeing unit was not violating any environmental norms.
In December, the villagers staged a protest, accusing the dyeing unit of contaminating their groundwater. In response, PPCB officials started an investigation and collected water samples on December 5 from various locations, including tubewells owned by villagers Kehar Singh, Pritpal Singh and Jagdev Singh, and a government tubewell.
Locals claim they have filed multiple complaints regarding the tubewells over the years as the chemical waste from the dyeing unit has been “seeping into the water supply”.
“We have been raising this issue for a long time, but the department has shown little interest in taking action against the dyeing unit,” said Sukhi Gill, a resident of Mangat. “The groundwater is still highly polluted and unfit for drinking,” he added.
Public Action Committee (PAC) member Kuldeep Singh Khaira echoed these concerns. “We have brought this matter to the attention of the higher authorities multiple times but the department is not taking any action. It seems like there is something fishy in the findings of the report and they are waiting for approval before doing anything,” he alleged. PAC is a civil society group.