Local residents boycotted the public hearing conducted here today by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) in connection with an environmental clearance for setting up an integrated municipal solid waste management facility in the city.
The residents were so angry that they even refused to hear the viewpoint of officials of the PPCB and the local Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The plant is proposed to be set up at a cost of over Rs 200 crore on 20 acres on the Bathinda-Mansa road within the BMC limits. Several localities, including the Housefed Colony, Nachhattar Nagar, Bhai Mati Dass Nagar, Joga Nagar and Harbans Nagar, are situated near the proposed site.
While the public hearing was in progress, some persons from the gathering called for leaving (boycott) the public hearing in protest. The call received a huge response. At this stage, a PPCB official announced the winding up of the proceedings of the public hearing.
Earlier, people raised their hands to register a unanimous disapproval of the setting up of the plant here. However, they said they were not against the setting up of the plant unless it was about 30 km away from the city.
Resentment among the local residents was so strong that they did not even allow an official to give a visual presentation of the project.
Earlier, the District Congress Committee (urban) under the leadership of local Congress MLA Harminder Singh Jassi staged a dharna under the railway over bridge near the Government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) here to protest against the proposed plant. The Congress persons, led by Jassi, also went to the public hearing site and got their objections recorded with the PPCB officials.
Jassi said the solid waste from 18 municipal councils of this region would be brought here in hundreds of trucks, which would not only create air pollution in the city but would also have adverse effects on the health of local residents.
Uma Shanker Gupta, Commissioner, BMC, said they had organised the public hearing to hear the views and objections of the residents and to convince them about the setting up of the plant, but the people preferred not to listen to the viewpoint of the authorities.
He said the PPCB officials would now submit their report to the Environment Impact Assessment Council, Patiala, for taking a decision over the views of the people.
Dr RM Mehta, environment consultant, Voyants Solutions Private Limited, Gurgaon, said people did not have full knowledge about the project. It would provide them relief from solid waste lying in open and not miseries, he added.
He said that the project would not spread any pollution and rather it would generate revenue for the BMC.
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