This pollution has been caused by a paper factory that was set up 16 years ago. The noise, air, land and water pollution that are a direct result of the factory have changed a beautiful and peaceful rural area into one where farmers’ land and crops have been destroyed, the air is full of fine, crystalline ash, the local river is an evil-smelling, stagnant mire of foam-encrusted sludge and the water table has fallen by over 70 feet.
The factory owners are rich, powerful and totally without any social conscience. We therefore need help from every possible source. We do not want to shut the factory down, for that would rob villagers of valuable jobs. What we want is for the factory to run its filtration plant regularly, dispose of its ash responsibly, stop pouring chemical effluents into the local river and compensate farmers whose livelihoods have been ruined by the damage to their crops.
These are our proposals, submitted to the SDM, Bilari on 12-2-2008 to be forwarded to the District Magistrate, Moradabad