The central government has announced a Rs 190 crore project to clean up rivers in Punjab. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said the project would start with the cleaning up of Sutlej river, which falls in Jalandhar and Phillaur cities in Punjab.

As per a Press Information Bureau release, Ramesh also said the state government has been directed to prepare a detailed action plan to deal with the pollution in Ludhiana, as it has become the 8th critically polluted city in the country. The minister said that a notification to overcome the problem of pollution has been released to all those cities which are emitting heavy amount of industrial pollution.

He said the notification of pollution control has also affected the investment plan of Rs 25,000 crore, which is in the pipeline for the industrial development in Ludhiana and Gobindgarh and is waiting for appropriate action from the state government to curb pollution. The Centre has stopped releasing funds for the critically polluted cities.