Ludhiana, June 27 -- Even as the Ludhiana municipal corporation (MC) has repeatedly claimed that Buddha Nullah is being cleaned and rejuvenated, serious lapses have emerged in the handling of toxic sludge generated by the city's sewage treatment plants (STPs) and effluent treatment plants (ETPs). Despite crores of rupees being spent, there exists no mechanism in place to safely process or dispose of the sludge, which contains dangerous levels of heavy metals. Importantly, questions have been raised, where the sludge is being disposed off as STPs are running more than a decade ago.

According to an official test report issued by the Central Testing Laboratory, department of soil science, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) on April 29, 20...