Villagers say no to land for dairies

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 25

After holding a gram sabha to conduct a discussion on a high-powered committee’s proposal about the shifting of dairies from Ludhiana city to Gorsian Kadar Baksh village, the village sarpanch has said that the villagers have decided not to give any land for setting up dairies in the village.

Earlier, a high-powered committee, formed by the Department of Local Government under the chairmanship of Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu, had taken the decision to shift dairies from the city to Gorsian Kadar Baksh village.

The Principal Secretary of Local Government AK Sinha had visited the village on Tuesday, and shared information with the villagers about the plan for shifting dairies to the village. The panchayat members had then said that they would take a decision on Thursday in this regard.

Sarpanch Jagdev Singh Deol said they held the gram sabha today in which around 300 villagers and panchayat members participated. “The villagers decided not to give any land for the shifting of dairies in our village,” he said.

He said, “There are many villagers belonging to economically weaker sections. Around 100 families are dependent on the panchayat land as they do farming on this land. If the land is given for setting up dairies, these villagers will become homeless and landless. Moreover, if dairies are set up in our village, it will lead to unsanitary conditions in the area and the villagers will be forced to suffer.”

Unsanitary conditions are a common scene at the dairy complexes in the city. The MC has planned to shift dairies outside its jurisdiction as the untreated waste from these dairies is being dumped into Buddha Nullah and sewer lines.

According to a report prepared by the MC, there are two dairy complexes in the city, one in the Haibowal Dairy complex spread in 179 acres of land and the second located in around 45 acres of land on the Tajpur road in Ludhiana. The MC has planned to shift around 44,000 cattle from the two dairy complexes and thousands of cattle from other sites.

Mayor Balkar S Sandhu could not be contacted for comments.

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