The Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Vijender Kumar Jain, has ordered a probe into the issue. The probe will be conducted by the P Ram Committee along with the PPCB.

The data has been provided by the Punjab Government. The industrial units close to the Nallah dump their waste into the water body. A major part of the effluent flows down to Ludhiana where the Nallah joins the Sutlej.

Advocate A R Takkar, counsel for the P Ram Committee, and the Punjab Pollution Control Board have claimed that the massive quantity of hazardous waste is being dumped into the Buddha Nallah to save expenditure on transportation. In November 2007, the Punjab government had identified a site in Nimbuan village, Patiala district, on for dumping hazardous waste, on the directions of the Supreme Court. According to the procedure, every industry in Punjab has to seek authorisation from the PPCB for storing waste in sealed containers.

For the next hearing, the Chief Justice has sought a list of all such industrial units which dump their waste into the Buddha Nallah or the Sidhwan Canal. The judge has also taken the Ludhiana SSP to task for showing insensitivity towards pollution of the Buddha Nallah. The SSP has been directed to immediately take up complaints against industrial units and other institutions as regards contamination of the Nallah. He has also been asked to become a member of the committee constituted to clean up waste being dumped into the Nallah. The committee, which was set up on the directions of the High Court, is being chaired by Secretary, Science and Technology, Punjab.

“Public involvement and public awareness regarding pollution and dumping of waste is a laudable effort but at the same time, the administration should also make all endeavours that no waste is thrown into the Nallah, which has become a dumping site for industries” Justice Jain observed.