Pollution by Bathinda refinery: Administration ready to relocate villagers

According to the villagers,the administration showed them three locations for their rehabilitation — on Talwandi Sabo Road,Rama mandi Road and Talwandi Sabo to Bathinda Road. but the location has not yet been finalised.

“It is happening perhaps for the first time in Punjab that the government is shifting the entire village to another location instead of asking the the refinery owner to control the pollution levels,” added Bhakar.

Raghbir Singh and Sukhminder Singh,who are on inhalers these days,said,”The problem of asthma has increased manifold in our village. One has been admitted at a Ludhiana hospital. Even in adjoining villages,many have to be hospitalised. A number of families have already shifted to Talwandi Sabo and Bathinda areas by renting houses. The rest will also move out once the government provides us land.”

In the nearby Phulokhari village,the situation is no different. The village nambardar,Baldev Singh,said that they hardly come out and sit in the open nowadays. “We get headaches,our eyes remain watery,we get irritation on skin and therefore prefer to stay indoors,” said Mandar Singh,a resident of the village.

The situation is so worse in the area that when Deputy Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav visited the village he had to tie a handkerchief on his mouth. A blast at the refinery on April 9 only added to villagers’ woes. In the past two months,two blasts occurred inside the LPG plant of the refinery. Though were of less intensity,but it has terrified the villagers. After the April 9 blast,villagers had blocked the rail,which was carrying goods to the refinery,for four days. Later Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had assured the villagers that their problems will be looked into.

S S Bal,the SDM of Talwandi Sabo,said the administration is ready to relocate the villagers soon. “I myself have experienced the trouble in breathing in the area. As per the demand of the villagers,we are ready to relocate them.”

However,the one sticky issue on the relocation has been the land to be allotted. “As per our measurement,100 acres need to be given to us apart from the cost of construction of houses. But the district administration says that only 41 acres will be given to us,” said Bhakar.

Meanwhile,Sangeetha Chakarborty,the head corporation communications of the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery,denied that the refinery was causing any sort of pollution in the area.

“Enough measures to control the pollution levels have been taken apart from creating green belts,” she said and added that the environmental impact report of the refinery was prepared by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute.