NGT imposes Rs 50 crore fine on Punjab over river pollution

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal on Wednesday ordered Punjab Government to submit a fine of Rs 50 crore as environmental compensation for polluting rivers Sutlaj and Beas due to uncontrolled industrial discharge. The bench had clubbed several similar cases, including the one dealing with death of fish due to untreated discharge from sugar Industries in May this year. The bench headed by Justice A.K. Goyal has asked the Punjab government to recover the fine from industries in two weeks. "Earlier a committee headed by Central Pollution Control Board, of which Punjab Pollution Control Board was a part, submitted a report saying it found that the industrial discharge was not being treated as treatment plants were not functioning," PPCB counsel Nagendra Benipal said. The tribunal clubbed some other cases of river polltion in Punjab, one based on a petition from Rajashtan-based activist, which claimed that polluted water from the Sutlej and Beas, entering Rajashtan through a feeder river, was affecting eight districts there. The next date of hearing is on February 27.