The SAD and the Ropar MC on Saturday traded allegations over the discharge of untreated sewage into the Sirhind Canal, which carries Sutlej water to Malwa region of Punjab. Both sides have blamed each other for pollution of the water body.Former Punjab minister and SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema had alleged that untreated sewage from the Basant Nagar area of Ropar was being directly discharged into the Sirhind Canal. He said that he had visited the site and witnessed sewage from the municipal council area flowing into the canal.Cheema said the Sirhind Canal supplied water for irrigation and other essential purposes in several districts and that allowing untreated sewage to enter it posed a threat to public health, agriculture and the environment.He demanded that the Punjab Government and concerned authorities immediately stop the discharge, fix responsibility and conduct scientific testing of the sewage and canal water. Cheema also said he would take up the issue before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and seek enforcement of environmental laws and compliance with the Supreme Court directions.However, Ropar MC president Inderpal Singh Raju Satyal rejected Cheema’s allegations, terming the claim that sewage from Basant Nagar was being discharged into the canal as ‘misleading information.’Satyal said sewage from Basant Nagar was being carried through underground pipes to sewage treatment plants and was not being discharged directly into the Sirhind Canal. He claimed that the sewage management system in Ropar had been substantially developed under a Rs 56 crore project initiated when his father, Amarjit Singh Satyal, was municipal council president and Sant Ajit Singh was the Ropar MLA. Three sewage treatment plants were subsequently constructed in the city, he said.Satyal said that drain water from village Kotla Nihang was being discharged into the Sirhind Canal.Satyal said the recent action was initiated over industrial waste allegedly entering the Sutlej from the Nalagarh-Baddi industrial belt of Himachal Pradesh. He said Ropar MLA Dinesh Chadha had taken up the matter with the authorities and efforts were underway, in coordination with Himachal Pradesh and the Panchkula administration, to remove the waste. The SAD leaders were perturbed at public support over the said action.