Local people of Bedkot Municipality in Kanchanpur district have protested against a plan to establish a crusher industry in the locality neglecting environmental issues.
The locals are worried that a crusher industry would affect the environment and arable lands in the locality.
Set standards and process have been violated to push the project, the locals claimed, adding that they have been lured into signing an agreement on this project. "The project owner has made especially elderly local people to consent to the project under various pretexts. We are against it," said local resident Kamala Awasthi.
The project owner submitted fake documents in a court in the absence of people's representatives, said Ram Singh Dhami, ward chairperson of the Municipality-9.
“They got my elderly father-in-law at home to put signature noting it was for the purchase of thresher (a machine used for paddy harvesting),” Pant said. “Many of the villagers have been given false assurance for employment”.
According to the law, an environmental impact assessment should be carried out while establishing industries resulting in environmental vulnerability.
The locals have vented their ire for not meeting the assessment criteria while setting up the crusher industry.
Some of the locals had registered a writ at the apex court expressing discontent over the initiative for establishing crusher industry in 2016. In response, the Supreme Court had directed the local level, through Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, to prepare necessary local policy and legal criteria and effectively enforce and monitor them.
The crusher operator side however claimed that they are running the industry by completing the stipulated process to that end.
When asked, the Municipality Mayor Ashok Kumar Chand said the issue should be dealt with as per a decision from the Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration, as local level lacks necessary laws, and they are waiting for a ministry decision.
