While the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has been asked to tighten its noose around polluting units with the clear signal of "nothing at the cost of public health" from the Chief Minister, its written order to the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) asking it to cut power connections of 26 dyeing and electroplating units of Ludhiana found discharging effluents into the Buddha Nullah is yet to be executed.

PPCB chairman Yogesh Goel says his written order stands and no subsequent instruction has been issued to revoke the earlier one. He adds many more polluting units are under the scanner and may face the axe.

However, Akalis' ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has resisted the move, saying closure is not the solution to the problem.

BJP leader and Industries Minister Manoranjan Kalia says the industry should be given more time to find a solution. "Installation of waste disposal and effluent management plants are both a costly and time-consuming propositions. Pollution is the price mankind pays for development and we need to work towards striking a balance between the two," he says.

But the politics of influence over effluents may not work this time. The action plan being drawn up by a panel headed by Science, Technology and Environment Minister Bikram Singh Majithia will be a comprehensive one. And Majithia has hinted that they are considering offering some pragmatic incentives to the industry.

"Both Akalis and the BJP leaders are representatives of the people and are committed to them. Moreover, all industrialists are not bad, we just have to fix the responsibility so that they become serious about the issue," he says.

The plan, which is to be submitted to the CM on August 6 entails some drastic measures, including shifting of dyeing and electroplating industry from the banks of Buddha Nullah and setting up new industrial clusters besides regular monitoring of water treatment plants set up by bigger units.

Ludhiana MLA Harish Rai Dhanda, who is a part of the panel, says, "We have had almost five meeting after the CM's last visit to the city and each meeting till date remains inconclusive for the simple reason that interests and concerns of different parties clash. But we are holding discussions with about 20 PAU scientists specialising in soil, water and environment, who say that the problem is just not bad, but chronic. The content of heavy metals in Satluj River is 10 times higher than permissible. Same is the condition of Beas, where tanneries dump their waste. What's worse, even the water being fed to Punjab from Himachal is full of waste from the pharma companies."

Asserting that the only solution for Ludhiana seems to be shifting dyeing industry to new clusters, he says Bahadurke and Tajpur Road can be declared as clusters. "We also have space in focal point. No industrialist is ready to run an individual treatment plant, thus common plants need to be set up. A channel system whereby water treated by these plants can be reused by industry or for irrigation purposes will also have to be put in place. The industry will have to reuse its water."