HP’s maiden thermal plant to hit ecology in Punjab
Megha Mann
Tribune News Service

Anandpur Sahib, August 28
The proposed maiden thermal power plant of Himachal Pradesh, coming up at Tikri village (near Bagheri) in Nalagarh tehsil, will have serious implications for Himachal and Punjab in terms of environmental pollution and water crisis.

According to the Him Parivesh Environment Protection Society, an NGO spearheading movement against setting up of thermal power plants in Himachal Pradesh, the proposed plant will spell doom for water table in the region. The Changar area already faces severe water crisis in summer and with the proposed power plant guzzling around 1,075 cubic metres of water daily, the situation is bound to worsen.

“In his speeches, HP Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has time and again mentioned that hydropower projects are enough to meet state’s power requirements,” said Bal Krishan Sharma, general secretary of the NGO. He said the plant would burn around 650 tonne coal, 200 tonne solid waste and 600 tonne rice husk daily, leading to heavy blanket of pollution over 15 villages of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab each.

“Situated at a distance of barely a km from the Punjab boarder, the plant may have similar detrimental effects on the health of the people living nearby as the Bathinda thermal plant has had on the health of the people living in and around Bathinda,” he said.

NGO office-bearers said Jaiprakash Associates Limited (JP), which was to set up the 30-MW project, had got Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report prepared from a Hyderabad-based company, which had reported false findings.

“The report is not based on facts. It states that there is no forest land within 10-km radius of the upcoming plant, whereas Nalagarh and Bilaspur areas lie in the demarcated protected forest land,” Sharma said.

He said the report mentioned that there was no historical place within 10-km radius of the proposed plant site, whereas there were places like Patalpuri Sahib, Kiratpur Sahib and many historical gurdwaras in its vicinity.

Sharma said the government had called a public hearing on September 7 in connection with environmental clearance, which was expected to evoke response from a large number of people, especially villagers who would be at the receiving end when the plant came up.