The agitation carried out by residents of Khaliavaas village in Rewari district against a beer factory proved to be worth it after 10 days, when the district authorities, bowing to the villagers’ pressure, sealed the factory on Tuesday.
A team of district authorities along with officials of Haryana Pollution Control Board reached Khaliavaas village and officially sealed those machines of the factory that were found spreading pollution during the investigation.
Before executing the action, Rewari Deputy Commissioner (DC) held a meeting of the officials and discussed the issue in depth. “The factory has been sealed after samples of air smoke failed the laboratory test while report of the water samples is yet to come,” an official of HPCB said.It is pertinent to mention here that a panchayat of 11 nearby villages held outside the factory on May 14 had served a five-day ultimatum on the state authorities to seal the factory. The panchayat had also threatened to convene a mahapanchayat of 51 villages if the factory was not closed by May 19.
The villagers alleged that the factory was discharging its effluents into the ground through a borewell dug in the factory premises which later got mixed with the potable water supplied by the Public Health Department in the village.Over 200 villagers had fallen ill after drinking polluted water in the last two weeks. They were admitted to various private hospitals besides general hospital and trauma centres in Rewari town following the complaints of vomiting, stomach upset and diarrhea.
The district authorities had constituted a special team to probe into the allegations leveled by the villagers against the Bar Malt India Private limited.The villagers had sealed the main gate of the factory when the authorities did not take any action against the factory managers despite the directives of local MlA and Power Minister Capt Ajay Yadav.