Don’t shift dairy farms, make them pollution free: Panel

The seven-member Punjab Vidhan Sabha estimate committee on Thursday directed the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation to drop proposals to shift the dairy complexes in the city and instead focus on making them high-tech and pollution free.

In its first audit meeting with the MC, the Punjab House panel, sources said, is clearly against shifting the diary complexes. "There have been constant complaints of grave pollution at the Hambran and Tajpur dairy complexes. While MC was talking of shifting the complexes, the committee has clearly told them that there is a lack of finances and they should think of other ways to curb pollution," a source present at the meeting said.

Among those present at the meeting were local MLAs Prem Mittal, Simranjit Bains and Rakesh Pandey along with 4 others. MC commissioner Rakesh Verma, joint commissioner P S Ghuman, additional commissioner Devinder Singh and representatives from all the departments of MC engineering, building, house tax, assistant town planners and senior town planners from all 4 zones were also present. "We are yet to receive detailed project report about dairy complexes and after submitting the post-study report we will come to some conclusion," MC Commissioner Verma said. Some other points highlighted in committee were the Giaspura demolitions of 2005 and garbage collection. While committee has urged the MC to form a panel and conduct an inquiry into the demolition of four houses in 2005 under mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura, it also directed the MC to look into the door-to-door garbage collection by the private firm, A to Z, and 'improve the system' further. The Punjab House Committee also held the MC responsible for not constructing 4,800 houses for the poor that it had to. The MC, however, blamed it on a lack of funds.

The House panel also urged the civic body to build testing labs in the city to ensure quality is maintained in construction of roads, among others. The MC, on the other hand, clearly told the committee that 'testing labs are a dream as it already faces extreme staff shortage.'

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