Dear CM Punjab, you want Schools or distilleries? scholars or boozers?

Dear CM…you want school or distilleries? Scholars or boozers?

Jupinderjit Singh/TNS
Machhan (Bathinda) October 9

Dear Chief Minister, do you want schools in the state or distilleries?

This is a question posed by students of private school, who along with
several residents of six villages blocked Bathinda-Dabwali highway for
over four hours seeking immediate closure of the BCL distillery that
opened in this village about two months ago.

Residents alleged that they were forced to take the step along with
school children as no official of the District Administration or the
Pollution Control Board was listening to their grievances. Most
agitated were the students of the private school, which caters to 42
villages in the region and was situated close to the distillery.

Against the backdrop of the raging controversy of donation of rs one
crore to Sanawar School by Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, the students
carried placards questioning if the government wanted scholars or
boozers? They also invited the CM to visit the place and try standing
through the pungent smell.

Residents and school children sat at different places on the highways
in groups at little distance from each other from 8 am to beyond noon
when a Naib Tehsildar Hukam Chand Deepak from Bathinda assured them
“due action” would be taken. Deputy Commissioner K K Yadav said he has
asked the officials of the Punjab Pollution Control Board to inspect
the distillery and report the ground situation at the earliest.

Rajinder Mittal, the most influential businessman of the region, who
owns the distillery besides a Multiplex and Industries, claimed the
distillery was pollution free. He said he had tried to educate the
villagers yesterday in a meeting at a Gurudwara about the environment
saving steps taken up at the factory.

“Most of the residents barring few persons agreed with our efforts.
The distillery is not fully functional. It is at establishing stage.
We are using Bio methods to prevent pollution. It is a little lengthy
process. I ensure you that we are taking full measures and will
continue to do so,” he claimed adding he has spent rs 20 crore alone
on prevention of pollution in the rs 110 crore worth project.

He added that the distillery was not just for preparing liquor, “We
use the alcohol to preserve upto 35 per cent protein of the rice brain
instead of the present 16 per cent. I request everyone concerned to
please show patience till the stablisation process of the distillery.

He also denied waste water was being discharged into Lasara drain- the
Budda Nullah of this region. Gagandeep Singh, one of the protesting
youths of Machhana village said it was increasingly becoming difficult
for them to live in the village due to the pollution. ever since the
distillery started functioning, “ There was unbearable noise besides
the air and water pollution. Farmers whose field are near the
distillery cant venture there to harvest cotton crop.

Jaspreet Kaur, principal of the private school said the unbearable
smell from the distillery besides the noise pollution was making
students and teachers sick, “ Students are complaining of headaches
and nausea. Even I fell sick for few days. The noise and the smell
remained unbearable even if doors and windows are closed.”

EOM