It must be the policy to encourage liquor why a polluting distillery on the Bathinda-Dabwali road is being allowed to work without sanction from the state pollution control board.
Up to 3 kilometres from the distillery towards Bathinda, waste effluent from the factory is spilled all over
the road and the air smells foul. "Tankers from Bathinda Chemicals Limited (BCL) did it," said a villager, pointing to a trail of effluent on the Bathinda road.
BCL is supposed to treat all the liquor-production waste on its site in this village and not carry even a drop outside. The spill all over the Bathinda road on Sunday morning was clear evidence of the violation of this rule.
"It is a common practice to transport the waste from the distillery and spill it along the way," said Jasbir Singh, a villager of Mashana and secretary of the action committee against the distillery. "It might be deliberate. They must have thought it would not create a stink but it did."
(For details read tomorrow's hindustantimes)