Brick kiln owners rued the hefty losses inflicted by unexpected heavy rain that lashed the region on Thursday turning raw bricks lying open in the fields into mud and also damaging the bricks put in kilns for baking.
"The unexpected rains on Thursday inflicted big loss on us. Lakhs of raw bricks lying open in the fields were reduced to mud, as nobody was expecting such a heavy pre-monsoon down pour," said Arvinder Singh Chamak, a brick kiln owner.
"With the Thursday rain, the current season of manufacturing bricks has come to an abrupt end. Usually the manufacturers used to close their kilns in July. If owners start preparing raw bricks now, it will take another four to five days to dry them up, while it seems that there are not many sunny days in offing," he said.
Sarabjit Singh Dhillon, general secretary of the Ludhiana District Brick Kiln Owner's Association, also said the unexpected heavy rains inflicted big financial losses on owners.
"Even as many of the manufacturers had stopped preparing raw bricks, as the season was nearing to an end, lakhs of bricks were destroyed inside the kilns due to heavy rains, making owners to suffer big losses. In Ludhiana region - which witnessed the maximum rainfall in Punjab - major loss has occurred in the kilns," said Dhillon, adding that removing mud from inside the kilns would also be a big task for the owners.
{{/usCountry}}"Even as many of the manufacturers had stopped preparing raw bricks, as the season was nearing to an end, lakhs of bricks were destroyed inside the kilns due to heavy rains, making owners to suffer big losses. In Ludhiana region - which witnessed the maximum rainfall in Punjab - major loss has occurred in the kilns," said Dhillon, adding that removing mud from inside the kilns would also be a big task for the owners.
{{/usCountry}}The untimely heavy rains came as blow to the owners, who already were preparing already to close their kilns following the directions of the Supreme Court last year to get environment clearance for mining to extract sand for bricks.
Hundreds of brick kilns remained closed since last rainy season for the want of environment clearance. It was only in March this year, when the Punjab government under the Punjab Minor Minerals Rules 2013 exempted mining of five hectares for brick sand from the Environment Management Plan so that the brick kilns could resume manufacturing.