Protest against waste treatment plant

Palampur, March 23

People of Dhanag and Gadiara panchayats of the Baijnath subdivision are opposing the setting up of a waste treatment plant adjacent to residential areas. A large number of villagers along with the pardhans of the two panchayat today held a protest at Dhanag against the Baijnath Nagar Panchayat and the local administration.

The protesters said if the garbage treatment plant was set up near the villages, the area would get polluted and people would face health hazards. Urging the local administration to set up the plant at some isolated place, they threatened to launch an agitation if their demand went unheeded.

The waste from Baijnath and Paprola towns is currently being dumped on the banks of Binwa river and Burli Kothi. Baijnath Nagar Panchayat was planning to set up its own garbage treatment plant at Burli Kothi, but the proposal was opposed and now the matter was pending with the Urban Development Department. The Pollution Control Board had slapped a Rs 7-lakh fine on the Nagar Panchayat for dumping garbage in Binwa river last year.

As people came to know about the plan of the administration and Nagar Panchayat regarding the setting of the treatment plant, they got together and held a protest. They said the proposed plant was close to the residential area and a local water channel. If the garbage treatment plant was established here, it will pollute the river and drinking water, they added. They claimed that the proposed plant also violated the orders of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

The pardhan of Gadiara panchayat said he was misguided by the authorities into granting a no-objection certificate (NOC) to the Baijnath Nagar Panchayat. He said he agreed to grant the NOC as he was told that a drinking water treatment plant would be come up in his panchayat. “Now, it has come to my notice that the garbage treatment plant is being set up, which panchayat will never allow,” he added.