Minister to meet protesters at Zira

Chandigarh, December 16

The five-month-old dharna outside a distillery-cum-bioethanol plant at Zira is likely to end soon with a formal announcement expected at the protest site on Saturday.

Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal has been deputed to meet protesting farmers and apprised them of the government proposal to end the logjam.

Area residents have been demanding closure of the factory at Mansurwal village in Zira, claiming that chemical effluents from the factory were polluting the groundwater in the area.

A marathon meeting of members of the Public Action Committee, comprising protesters, was held today with CM Bhagwant Mann and his team. Advocate General Vinod Ghai was reportedly present in the meeting.

Kapil Dev, a member of the Public Action Committee staging the Sanjha Zira Morcha at Mansurwal since July end this year, said the CM had accepted all their demands. “No public hearing was done at the time of setting up of the factory. The government has agreed that a committee of the Vidhan Sabha will soon hold a public hearing. It has been decided that the factory will be allowed to run its operations for a month, during which time, it will discharge will be checked for chemical effluents,” he said.

Since the protest started, the NGT and the Punjab Pollution Control Board have given a clean chit to the factory. The management of the factory had approached the Punjab and Haryana HC, alleging that the protesters were not allowing them to run the unit.