Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan) on Thursday started a five-day-long stir outside a unit of Trident Group located at Dhaula village in Barnala to raise concern over the contamination and depletion of groundwater.
Trident Group, the largest textile group in the state and an exporter of towels, bedsheets and yarn, had already announced to temporarily shut down major operations at the unit as a precautionary measure.
The union has started a “save water” campaign in the state and is protesting at nine locations, including at Daudhar village in Moga where Punjab’s first central water treatment plant has been set up with assistance of World Bank to supply clean drinking water to 85 villages of the district.
Addressing the gathering outside the Trident unit, BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) senior vice-president Jhanda Singh Jethuke alleged that control over the state’s waters was being given to corporate houses “as per instructions of the World Bank”.
“In order to sell drinking water to the state’s residents, major water treatment projects have been commenced in the state. To force people to drink treated water from corporate houses, the rivers, water bodies and groundwater of the state are being contaminated with effluents of factories and industries. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to fight on this issue,” he said.
Shingara Singh, general secretary of the union, said: “We have started this campaign to make the government end the World Bank’s control over the state’s water, and save the ground and river water on the state.”
{{/usCountry}}Shingara Singh, general secretary of the union, said: “We have started this campaign to make the government end the World Bank’s control over the state’s water, and save the ground and river water on the state.”
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