Shifting of dairies still a distant dream

Parveen Arora

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Karnal, December 25

The shifting of dairies out of the city seems to be a distant dream as even after the passing of several deadlines, dairy owners are not willing to shift their units out of the city on the Pingli road.

Only three dairy owners have shifted their business and the construction of a few others is going on, but still a large number of dairies are running in the city and continue to choke the sewerage system.

As per the data collected by The Tribune, there are 231 plots of different sizes on the Pingli road, where the KMC has claimed to have developed infrastructure like roads, streetlights, water, sewerage, electricity connections etc. by spending crores on it.

As per the survey conducted by the KMC in 2020, there were 188 operational dairies in the city and of them113 dairy owners had purchased plots.

Around 20 dairy owners have completed their construction till lintel level, while nearly 50 have left the construction work after the boundary wall completion.

The dairy owners blamed the KMC for not providing them facilities there. The roads are in a pathetic condition and they were not getting electricity connection, said a dairy owner, adding that he had applied for an electricity meter, but it was not provided. Earth-filling work was to be done up to 3 feet by the KMC, but it was not done in a large number of plots, he added.

Sewerage lines are also blocked and no security arrangement is there, another dairy owner added. He said the former Commissioner had assured two security guards, boundary wall and gate, but still there was no headway. He said the KMC officials were also showing lack of interest.

“The construction work is going on due to which there could be road issue, but the basic facilities have been provided there. We are also monitoring the shifting work regularly,” said Arun Bhargava, Deputy Municipal Commissioner (DMC), KMC.

The shifting of dairies is a long-pending issue of the city. It was announced first during the INLD government in 2002 and later during the Congress government and further after assuming power, the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had announced the same. The Karnal Municipal Corporation (at that it was Municipal Council) had started the process to acquire 32 acres in Pingli village in 2002-03.