Owners protest as MC plugs outlets of dairy complexes

Tribune News Service

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Ludhiana, September 24

Amid a strong protest by dairy owners today, officials of the Municipal Corporation, in the presence of heavy police force, plugged some outlets through which untreated waste of around 150 dairies at Tajpur Road was being discharged into Buddha Nullah.

The dairy owners blocked traffic on the road for more than one hour to oppose the MC action.

However, the police managed to get them lift their dharna after which the civic body started plugging the outlets.

According to information, the drive was supposed to be started at 8 am, but it started around 4 pm. The Municipal Commissioner had earlier written to the Deputy Commissioner to provide a duty magistrate to maintain law and order during the drive. However, the duty magistrate reached the site around 3 pm whereas policemen were deployed for the drive since morning.

MC’s superintending engineer Rajinder Singh said the dairy owners were still dumping the dairy waste into Buddha Nullah despite repeated warnings.

The untreated waste of around 150 dairies was dumped into Buddha Nullah through various outlets, which were closed today, he added.

“The dairy owners were opposing the drive, but the police handled the situation. Around 100 employees of the MC and 150 policemen were available to take action against the erring dairies. If the dairy owners are found violating the rules again, legal action would be taken against them next time,” he said.

Sources said the dairy owners had started gathering around 6 am at dairy complexes as they had information about the MC’s action.

DS Oberoi, president of the Dairy Complex Association, Tajpur Road, Ludhiana, said, “We have been demanding from the civic body to allow us to dump the waste at a land, which was allotted more than 30 years ago for disposing cow dung. Now, the civic body has closed the outlets. We want that our issues should be resolved at the earliest by providing us land for disposal of cow dung.”

Earlier, a panel of the National Green Tribunal had inspected Buddha Nullah and stated that the present situation of the drain was alarming.