Bhagwant Mann Calls Oct 31 Meet on Buddha Nullah Dairy Waste in Ludhiana
After MP Balbir Singh Seechewal's public frustration, the Punjab CM summons dairy owners and top officials to Chandigarh to settle who collects, treats and answers for cattle waste.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has called a meeting in Chandigarh on October 31 with Ludhiana's dairy owners and senior officials to address dairy waste flowing into the city's sewerage network and the Buddha Nullah. Notices have gone out to dairy operators along Tajpur Road and Hambran Road, as well as the Municipal Corporation Commissioner, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) chief and the Deputy Commissioner.
The move follows a politically awkward few days for the ruling AAP. Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Singh Seechewal, himself a party member, reviewed the Buddha Dariya rejuvenation project and asked why pollution persists despite repeated meetings, directions and heavy spending on treatment and rejuvenation infrastructure. He also said there was little point in remaining an MP if he could not help clean the nullah.
Seechewal's focus has been on Ludhiana's big dairy clusters. During a recent inspection, cattle dung and dairy waste were found still reaching the nullah, and problems at treatment facilities also drew scrutiny. Mann met him in Jalandhar on Wednesday, and the meeting with dairy owners and officials was directed after that.
The agenda is practical: stop cattle waste from being discharged, improve how it is collected, and set up a workable way to dispose of it. Fixing responsibility for violations is also expected to be on the table, which is often the missing piece in clean-up drives involving several agencies.
Enforcement has already begun to tighten. MC and PPCB teams have been acting against dairy units found flouting waste-disposal norms ahead of the meeting. The scale explains the urgency: the Tajpur Road and Hambran Road clusters house thousands of cattle and generate large amounts of animal waste daily.
Why it matters: Ludhiana is one of Punjab's key industrial and dairy hubs, and the Buddha Nullah is a long-running test of whether big-ticket sewage treatment spending can deliver visible results. Seechewal's argument is that treatment plants and rejuvenation work will keep struggling unless dairy waste is kept out of the sewers. For dairy owners, the meeting could bring clearer rules and perhaps a collection system; for the government, it is a chance to show that talk is turning into accountability.
Source: The Tribune