Ambala police have arrested eight people and confiscated their vehicles under a special drive against illegal mining in the rivers flowing in Ambala. It is alleged that those arrested hail from Saharanpur (UP) and had come to Ghaggar river with trucks and tractors and started filling their vehicles with sand and stone when the police team conducted the raid. All were booked under Sections 379 and 188 IPC.

Despite a second sewage treatment plant on the verge of becoming operational in Panchkula, residents will have to wait for more time before treated water is pumped into parks and lawns. The new plant, constructed by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is housed in Sector-22 and will have the capacity to treat 39 million litres per day (mld). It will become operational in a week’s time. At present, Panchkula has one sewage treatment plant in Sector-20 which treats 18 mld.

The Ghaggar is facing twin attack: the industrial waste from Himachal and Punjab and the sewage drained into it from Sirsa, causing irreparable damage to animals, plants and humans alike. Samples of water taken from Sirsa and on the upstream at Chandpura in Fatehabad show a grim picture. The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) level in the Ghaggar in the district is between 25 and 30 mg per litre against the maximum permissible limit of 3 mg per litre. Reason: the town discharges all its municipal waste into the river in the absence of a sewage treatment plant (STP).

Toxic subsoil water causes skin diseases, other ailments. Influx of hazardous chemicals and other effluents in the Ghaggar has reached alarming proportions causing great damage to flora and fauna in the areas irrigated by distributaries originating from Ottu Weir near Rania town of the district.

The Kaushalya Dam being constructed on Ghaggar river in Panchkula at a cost of Rs 217 crore will soon be made functional. Work on the project started in 2008 and it was to become operational by August 2010. The delay in construction has led to escalation of cost in project. “We are hopeful of making the dam functional soon,” said an officer at the Irrigation Department. The dam will provide drinking water to Panchkula and also check flash floods.

Punjab says flooding due to bundh will be grave “nuisance”

The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its verdict on Punjab's application to restrain Haryana from strengthening the Ghaggar river bundh . Punjab filed this application in its main suit opposing construction of the Hansi-Butana canal.

Patiala: A day before the hearing in the Supreme Court on the toe wall being constructed by Haryana along the Hansi-Butana embankment, farmers of flood-prone villages, led by leaders of the BKU Ekta (Dakunda), today started a 10-day agitation at Dharmheri village.

Chandigarh: The tussle between Punjab and Haryana over the Hansi-Butana canal is set to take another turn after PCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh accused the Central Water Commission (CWC) of changing its stance to Haryana’s advantage. The CWC today claimed that encroachments in the Ghaggar riverbed falling in Punjab’s territory were coming in the way of its free flow.

CWC Chairman AK Bajaj, who was busy at a farewell party today, refused to comment on his alleged change in stance.

LUCKNOW: Flood situation on Thursday remained grim in Uttar Pradesh with a majority of the rivers, essentially in east and south-east Uttar Pradesh, flowing above the danger mark.