For 20 years now, farmers of Maliya town in Rajkot district have been fighting to keep salt out of their farms. The ingress, they say, is because of the salt factories near their farms. The matter has dragged in courts with no solution in sight. The farmers have approached the Gujarat High Court.

Ismail Jeda, president of a local farmers' association, said the farmers have been resisting the piling of salt in open spaces like gauchar land and railway yards close to their farms. “They pile up the salt and then sprinkle water over it. This causes the salt to percolate into the ground, thereby making the land uncultivable,” he said.

The farmers filed the first complaint in this regard at the Morbi Sub-Divisional Magistrate's Court in 1985. Since then, the court has passed three orders, two of which were in favour of the farmers, said Jeda. "In both the orders, salt factories were directed to clear the ground. However, according to a source at the Maliya Mamlatdar’s office, the order passed by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate was challenged in a fast-track court by the owners of salt factories, following which a stay was granted.