‘Milk’ plant: Protest called off after PPCB halts construction

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Ropar, May 4

Five days after local residents staged a dharna in front of an upcoming milk plant near Kukuwal village, the Punjab Pollution Control Board issued a notice to the company management today directing it to stop the construction work at the factory. Following this, the people ended their protest.

According to the notice from PPCB, the company had started construction work without obtaining any consent or no-objection certificate from the board and no proposal of wastewater generation, treatment and its disposal had been submitted.

The local residents had started agitation on Tuesday. They were sitting on dharna in front of an under construction building of Agrimax Milk Plant alleging that the company is setting up an ethanol factory in the garb of milk plant. Incidentally, the parent company of Agrimax Milk Plant is Agrimax Distillery Limited. The company had also plant to set up an ethanol project in the same village and even got clearance from Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The protesters said that their demand was to stop the construction work at the factory immediately. Now, it has been done after the PPCB issued a notice to the company following which the dharna ended, said the protesters.

Firm had not obtained permissions

According to the notice, the company had started construction work without obtaining any consent or no-objection certificate from the board and no proposal of wastewater generation, treatment and its disposal had been submitted