Adilabad: Hundreds of farmers from Gundampelli and Dilawarpur villages staged a protest at the collectorate on Friday, demanding the immediate halt to the construction of an ethanol factory in their area. The protesters claim the factory will cause severe health issues, pollute groundwater, and destroy fertile agricultural land, reports Deccan Chronicle.
As per media report, Friday witnessed residents of Gundampelli and Dilawarpur storming the district collectorate and urging the state government to intervene in putting a halt to the construction of the ethanol plant in their area. A similar factory is also coming up at Ankushapur, a village in the Kagaznagar mandal of Komaram Bheem Asifabad district. Locals here are opposing the project fearing pollution and threat to wildlife, particularly tigers, which were spotted in the forests of Ankushapur—a habitat for tigers.
The factory in Dilawarpur is appropriately located between Gundampelli village and the mandal headquarters. Nirmal collector Abhilasha Abhinav promised officials would not encourage the works. He asked the RDO and local tahsildar to conduct an inquiry and submit a report.
The villagers have feared that emissions from the factory will cause respiratory problems and contaminate the groundwater with its effluents. A farmer pointed out that the factory would use 12,000 litres of water daily to boil rice for ethanol production and would discharge 4,000 litres of wastewater. However, the factory owner has countered the claims and said that all the effluents would be treated and no contaminated water would be let out into the environment.
Yet, despite such assurances, the villagers agitated for 26 days and did not allow the ethanol factories to come up in their regions.
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