Chandigarh: Untreated water issue to reach Amit Shah

CHANDIGARH: Chandigarh administration plans to raise the issue of flow of untreated water from Punjab and Haryana into the forest area behind Sukhna Lake and into Nepli choe in the northern zonal council, which will be organised under the chairmanship of Union home minister Amit Shah in Jaipur on July 9.
UT has decided to raise the issue of eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) around Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary in the meet.A senior UT official said that the UT forest and wildlife department had submitted a list of issues to be taken up at the Jaipur meet to senior officials of the UT administration. Release of untreated water is among the issues submitted before the UT administration. UT administrator and UT adviser will take a call on this in the days to come, he added.
The UT administration had recently written to the Punjab government, asking it to stop flow of untreated water of Kansal (Punjab) village into the forest area of Chandigarh. The letter was in continuation to the previous letter written last year.
UT admn raises critical issues
UT raised the issue last year after former administrator V P Singh Badnore took a serious view of the untreated sewage flowing from Kansalinto the forest areas behind Sukhna Lake. This led to contamination of the lake.
He directed officials to take up the matter with Punjab government. In the latest letter written to the additional chief secretary (Forests), Punjab and additional chief secretary (Environment), UT chief conservator of forests (CCF) Debendra Dalai said that the UT administration wanted to draw their attention towards two critical issues related to ecosensitive zone (ESZ) around Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary in the area falling in Punjab, and untreated water of Kansal village, Punjab, draining into the forest area of UT Chandigarh behind Sukhna Lake.