As Punjab Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Bhagwant Mann ordered the closure of a distillery plant at Mansurwal Kalan village in Ferozepur’s Zira Tuesday, it marked 178th day of agitation by local villagers against the liquor factory.
The Sanjha Morcha Zira (SMZ) has been spearheading this agitation of local farmers outside the alcohol unit, Malbros International Pvt Ltd owned by a former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Deep Malhotra, since July 24 to demand its complete shutdown, charging that it has been polluting groundwater and causing air pollution in Mansurwal Kalan and adjoining villages.
CM Mann’s move to shut down the liquor factory with immediate effect has been seen by the SMZ activists and other protesters as a “victory of people’s movement”.
“This is a victory of masses…We are not against industry but against pollution,” said an environmental activist Kuldeep Singh Khaira from an NGO Public Action Committee, echoing the refrain from over 70 farm unions and social organisations that supported the Zira farmers’ long stir.
The protesting farmers have slammed the state’s political parties – including the ruling AAP as well as the Opposition Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and BJP – for their continued silence and non-committal stand over the issue. Earlier, they had also accused the Mann government of attempting to curb their agitation through repression.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha – the umbrella organisation of farmer unions that spearheaded a successful year-long movement on the Delhi borders against the now-repealed three central farm laws – also joined the Zira farmers’ stir.
The SMZ’s convener Roman Brar, a 30-year-old hotel management graduate, said: “In mid-July, I had come to my village Maiyanwala Kalan in Zira, when the digging of a bore was going on in the village gurdwara. We were shocked when at a depth of 670 feet, we found polluted brown water, which was smelling like raw liquor waste. A liquor factory Malbros International Pvt Ltd was operational in Mansurwal village about 4 km from our village… So we could join the dots. We raised the issue with the authority concerned, but since the administration remained unmoved, we launched an indefinite dharna outside the liquor factory on July 24. Finally, Punjab CM has now announced the closure of this unit on 178th day of our stir. As it became a people’s movement, we named it Sanjha Morcha Zira.”
Brar said, “Initially our dharna was started by the residents of 3-4 villages, but later farmers from 45 villages joined us. The government took us lightly but the agitation gained further support from masses and farm unions from across the state.”
The SMZ convener also said, “We are thankful to the Punjab CM for finally realising that environment is an important subject and all we had been demanding was clean water, air and fertile soil. It is a victory of yet another public movement. We didn’t relent under police repression, their FIRs, arrests, and our day-night dharna continued regardless of the weather.”
Significantly, even the Opposition parties like the Congress, SAD and BJP did not extend their support to the protesters except condemning the police clamp-down on them in December, when many agitating farmers were booked and arrested.
“We have seen political parties’ silence during our agitation. It shows they are all pro-corporate,” Brar charged.
Nearly five months after the Zira farmers’ agitation, the AAP government was forced to constitute last month four committees for examining the pollution and other aspects raised by protesters.
“From December 23 onwards four official committees started their survey in the area to study human health, animal health and soil fertility in the affected villages. This survey was completed in the first week of January in which 13 samples including 2 soil samples had been taken. Much before its report was made public, the CM announced closure of the unit,” said Fateh Singh, another SMZ leader.
Asked when will their stir be now called off, Brar said, “SMZ will hold a meeting on Thursday and will afterwards announce our decision on lifting of dharna.”
On July 11 last year, CM Mann had scrapped a proposal to set up a 1000-acre textile park near the Mattewara forest in Ludhiana following an agitation by environmental activists under the aegis of the Public Action Committee. Only a month earlier then Mann had supported this project while speaking in the state Assembly. The government has not been able to find any alternative site for this project so far.
