| File Note: |
Subject: Proceedings of the personal hearing given by Member Secretary of the Board on 15.04.2026 w.r.t Show cause notice for refusal of consent to operate under the Water Act, 1974.
The following were present:
On behalf of Punjab Pollution Control Board:
Er. Vijay Kumar, Senior Environmental Engineer, Zonal Office-1, Ludhiana
On behalf of Municipal Council:
Sh. Balvir Singh, Executive Officer
On behalf of PWSSB:
Miss. Amritpal Kaur, SDE
Senior Environmental Engineer, Zonal Office-1, Ludhiana brought out that the Sewage Treatment Plant of 7 MLD capacity based on SBR Technology has been installed by PWSSB, Ludhiana at Sahnewal, Ludhiana for treatment of domestic effluent. The M.C Sahnewal is class-B, Municipal Council.
The STP is being regularly monitored by the Board and the analysis results of the effluent sample collected on 11.07.2024, 12.08.2024, 10.09.2024 & 16.10.2024 indicated that various parameters were beyond the limits prescribed by the Board for effluent sample collected during the above period.
The STP was disposing off its treated effluent in the drain leading to Buddha Nallah. However, no arrangement has been provided for utilization of treated waste water for irrigation purpose. The Municipal Council has not provided OCEMS system at outlet of Sewage Treatment plant. The Municipal Council has installed cameras but not found connected with the Board's portal. The Municipal Council has stored sludge approx. 8 Ton at site and same is used for in house gardening purpose only.
Further, a team of Joint Group of Central and State Govt. Departments created to address the challenges of pollution in Buddha nallah, Ludhiana visited the STP, Sahnewal on 02.01.2025 and observed that the treated effluent from STP, Sahnewal is being discharged into the Buddha Nallah at village Bhukhri Kalan. The officers from Soil and Water Conservation Department informed that presently there is no scheme prepared for the utilization of treated effluent from this STP for irrigation. However, in compliance of decisions of last meeting of the joint group the department is in process of preparing a scheme and nearby villages are short listed for the same. The officers were advised to submit the scheme to the committee at the earliest.
The authorities of Municipal Council/ PWSSB were issued show cause notice for refusal of consent to operate under the Water Act, 1974 with hearing before Chairman of the Board on 16.01.2025, wherein it was decided as under:
1. Consent to operate under the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 be granted to the Municipal Council for short period i.e. 6 months.
2. The Municipal Council/PWSSB shall operate the STP regularly and efficiently so as to achieve the prescribed effluent standards on regular basis.
3. The Municipal Council/PWSSB shall install the OCEMS at the outlet of STP connected with server provided by the Board within 15 days.
4. The Municipal Council/PWSSB shall take up matter with Department of Soil and Water Conservation for utilization of treated effluent for irrigation purposes and submit action taken report, within one month.
5. The Municipal Council/PWSSB shall connect the cameras with the Boards server, within 15 days.
6. The Municipal Council/PWSSB shall also develop the facility of vermicomposting of the sewage sludge using earthworms as a value addition step of the sludge management process, in order to utilize the sewage sludge as a better organic manure by the farmers, immediately and Municipal Council shall also explore the possibility of using STP sludge for other purposes.
7. The Director, Local Government is requested to initiate appropriate action against the officials of Municipal Council, Sahnewal w.r.t non-compliance of the provisions of Water Act, 1974 by the STP installed.
8. The Environmental Engineer, Regional Office-1, Ludhiana shall visit the STP, verify various compliances and submit the report regarding progress achieved by the Municipal Council, within 15 days.
The STP was granted short term Fresh Consent to operate for 6 months dated 28.01.2025 upto 27.07.2025 with special conditions as above.
The Municipal Council has now applied for obtaining Renewal Consent to Operate under Water Act, 1974 for treatment of Sewage Water @ 7000 KLD.
The Municipal Council was visited by officer of the Board on 13.10.2025 and was found not complying with consent conditions & provisions of the Water Act 1974.
The Municipal Council/ PWSSB has been issued show cause notice for refusal of consent to operate under the Water Act, 1974 with hearing before the Member Secretary of the Board on 24.11.2025 postponed to 22.12.2025, wherein it was decided that:-
1. The Municipal Council/ PWSSB shall operate / connect the Online Continuous Effluent Monitoring System (OCEMS) and CCTV cameras with Board's website, within 07 days.
2. The Environmental Engineer, Regional Office-1, Ludhiana shall visit the STP to verify the various compliances made by the STP, record maintained regarding operation of STP, sludge generation and shall submit the flash report within 07 days, so as to decide the consent application.
In compliance of the above the STP was visited by officer of the Board on 05.02.2026 and it was observed as under:-
1. The Sewage Treatment Plant of 7 MLD was operational during the visit.
2. The treated waste water is discharged into Bhukhri Kalan drain and which further drains into Buddha Nallah. Some of the treated waste water is used for irrigation purpose within the premises of the plant but a substantial portion of it drains into Bhukhri Kalan.
3. The Sewage Treatment plant has installed and operationalized the OCEMS and has been connected with the Board’s server. (The readings of the OCEMS during visit are: pH 7.2; BOD 5.5mg/l; TSS 2.4mg/l and COD 15.2mg/L).
4. The STP has installed cameras at four points: inlet, outlet, bypass and MPS all of which were functional and are connected with the Board's portal.
5. The Municipal Council/ PWSSB has not submitted any concrete proposal of utilization of treated effluent for irrigation in farmlands in coordination with Department of Soil and Water Conservation so as to reduce the discharge of effluents into Buddha nallah with an ultimate aim to stop such discharges permanently into surface water sources.
6. The operator of the STP informed that the sludge generated after drying is utilized in situ within the premises for gardening. However no proposal has been put forward for utilization of sludge for vermicomposting and no record regarding generation and utilization of sludge was furnished during the visit.
7. The sample results of STP Sahnewal from April 2025 to Feb, 2026 is as under:-
Parameters April, 2025 May, 2025 June, 2025 July, 2025 Aug, 2025 Sept, 2025 Oct, 2025 Nov, 2025 Dec, 2025 Jan, 2026 Feb 2026 Prescribed standards
pH 7.7 7.5 8.1 7.3 7.5 8.0 7.4 7.6 9.3 7.5 7.6 6.5-8.5
TSS 12 11 BDL 10 12 14 21 BDL 15 23 BDL <100
BOD 6 6 6 BDL 9 12 8 16 BDL 7 7 30
COD - - - - - - - - - - - 250
T.Coli - - - - - - - - - - - <1000
F.Coli 140 240 92 26 630 1400 24000 54000 BDL 1600000 170 <1000
As per the results it is inferred that the STP has failed to achieve the prescribed standards in the months of Sept, 2025 to Jan, 2026, however, analysis results of Feb 2026 are within limits.
The Municipal Council is not complying with the decisions of above said personal hearing and conditions of consent to operate granted under the provisions of the Water Act, 1974.
In view of above, the Municipal Council/ PWSSB has been issued show cause notice for refusal of consent to operate under the Water Act, 1974 with hearing before the Member Secretary of the Board on 15.04.2026.
Sh. Balvir Singh, Executive Officer on behalf of MC, Sahnewal attended the hearing and submitted that the 07 MLD STP of Nagar Council Sahnewal is installed at Village Jandiali, GT Road, Chandigarh. Its maintenance and operation is being done by PWSSB in a coordinated manner. The sludge collected at the STP is also used as fertilizer in the STP and parks and some farmers are also using this fertilizer in their fields. Apart from this, the Municipal Council will prepare a preparation for using sludge for vermicomposting. The sewage treated in the STP is used in parks, for spraying on roads and in construction works. The Municipal Council is coordinating with the villages surrounding the STP so that the sewage treated in the STP can be sprayed on village parks and village roads.
Miss. Amritpal Kaur, SDE on behalf of PWSSB attended the hearing and submitted that the PWSSB is maintaining and operating the STP regularly and it is further mentioned here that while that during the time of visit of September month the work of cleaning of CCT tank was in the process and samples were taken during cleaning of CCТ. While for month of October to January samples taken were not preserved as per procedural provisions. Parallelly for the same months the sample has been sent to the PBTI lab, Eco Paryavaran Lab and SIMA Lab Delhi and results of those are complying with the standards, and found complying with PPCB standards. Further, it is requested that the connectivity of OCEMS is pending on CPCB ODAMS server due to CTO validity issue, however, CCTV are in working Condition and has been connected with Board server.
After hearing the representative of the industry, officers of the Board and considering material facts on record, the Member Secretary of the Board decided as under:
1. The Municipal Council/PWSSB shall operate the STP regularly and efficiently so as to achieve the prescribed effluent standards on regular basis.
2. The Municipal Council/PWSSB shall take up matter with Department of Soil and Water Conservation for complete utilization of treated effluent for irrigation purposes & to stop discharge into Buddha Nallah and shall submit action taken report, within one month.
3. The Municipal Council/PWSSB shall submit proposal for the utilization of sludge generated from the STP for vermicomposting in order to utilize the sewage sludge as an organic manure by the farmers and shall maintain record regarding its generation and utilization, within one month.
4. The Municipal Council/ PWSSB shall operate / connect the Online Continuous Effluent Monitoring System (OCEMS) and CCTV cameras with CPCB /PPCB website, within 07 days.
5. Environmental Compensation for the period from September 2025 to January 2026 be imposed on the STP for failing to achieve the prescribed standards and causing damage to the environment.
6. Consent to operate under the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 be granted to the Municipal Council for short period i.e. 6 months.
7. The Environmental Engineer, Regional Office-1, Ludhiana shall write letter to Department of Soil and Water Conservation for complete utilization of treated effluent of the STP for irrigation purposes.
8. The Environmental Engineer, Regional Office-1, Ludhiana shall visit the STP and collect effluent samples in the presence of SDO , PWSSB as per protocol, verify various compliances and submit the report regarding progress achieved by the Municipal Council, after one month.
Submitted for confirmation of decisions of the hearing and for conveying to the Municipal Council and Regional Office, please.
|
