12 yrs on, Bathinda's diary shifting project fails to take off

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 23

The move to shift dairies outside the city has been hanging fire for the past 12 years. There are over 200 dairies running in residential areas of the city. Thousands of heads of cattle are reared in these units that operate from small buildings or sheds. These are often the main reason behind the choking of the sewerage system and water-logging in different parts of the city.

In 1998, the Bathinda Improvement Trust (BIT) floated a scheme to shift out dairies whose waste burdened the already inadequate sewerage system in the city.

The Trust earmarked 32 acres on the Goniana Road and even a foundation stone was laid by the then Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, but the land is still lying vacant.

In the early stages, the scheme got stuck because of the price of the plot, fixed at Rs 1,650 per square meter.

The dairy owners too rejected the project, alleging that it was illogical to shift cattle away from the places where they had been reared.

Meanwhile, the decade-old project is no longer sustainable as the area earmarked for dairies has become a part of the city.

Bathinda Deputy Commissioner B Srinivasan said: “The Bathinda Improvement Trust had floated the project and even recently they had discussed it, but they did not get positive response from the public, due to which they are now working on an alternate plan.”