‘Kale Pani da Morcha’: Dyeing industry tells 25K workers to reach near CETPs today

Holding the dyeing industry mainly responsible for discharging pollutants into the Buddha Nullah, activists of ‘Kale Pani da Morcha’, a campaign initiated to clean the Buddha Nullah by social organisations, had challenged the industry by saying that they would block the polluted water flow from their Common Effluent Treatment Plants  (CETPs) on Tuesday.

The entire dyeing industry in support with the allied hosiery and textile industry have kept at least their 25,000 workers ready to safeguard their CETPs. Throughout the day, meetings of the industrialists were held on Tajpur Road and Bahadurke road to reach outside the Central Jail on Tuesday to stop the activists.

Chairman of the Punjab Dyers Association Ashok Makkar said: “The industry was in no mood to initiate fight with anyone but since the activists had threatened to plug the CETPs on December 3, we are left with no other option but to safeguard the CETPs, installed by putting hundreds of crores on them.

“The police have already deputed force but we are also putting tents, for our workers to reach and save the CETPs. We cannot sit idle and watch our CETPs blocked,” said Makkar and Bobby Jindal of the association. The dyeing industry said they were able to get about 1 lakh workers there but since the area was congested, about 25,000 workers were asked to reach there initially. Dairy industry, electroplating industry, medical waste, domestic waste, etc, were equally putting pollutants into the nullah but the government was not even bothered to look at that aspect and only the dyeing industry was held responsible for the entire mess.

On the other hand, many farmer bodies have extended support to the ‘Kale Pani da Morcha’ for tomorrow’s call. At the same time, messages in WhatsApp groups are exchanged to “maintain calm and peace” by the activists. They said since the government had failed to clean the Buddha Nullah for decades, the campaign has started to provide relief to people suffering from diseases due to the contaminated water of the nullah.