Farmers plan to hold dharna outside HCC office in Mumbai

Surat: Gujarat Khedut Samaj will be organizing a dharna to demand closure of Hindustan Chemical Company (HCC) in Olpad for violating environment laws by dumping hazardous chemical waste in a village located near Bharuch.
GKS office-bearers said farmers will be travelling to Mumbai to hold the dharna outside the company headquarters on April 29.

GKS president Jayesh Patel said, “People from 50 villages of Olpad taluka in Surat district two weeks ago had organized a dharna outside the HCC’s Olpad unit that manufactures cyanide. Gujarat Pollution Control Board issued a closure notice to the company after the dharna. The company owners are yet to comply with the order. We have decided to hold the dharna outside the company headquarters in Mumbai.”

Bharuch police on March 12 had registered an FIR against the HCC for disposing of hazardous chemical waste in an open field at Vankhuta village in Umalla taluka of Bharuch district. Drivers of three tankers dumped chemical waste in the open field. Two drivers were nabbed by the villagers and handed over to police. The drivers told the police that the chemical waste belonged to the HCC and that the contractor had asked them to dump it in the open field near Bharuch.

Patel added, “If the state government fails to take any action against the HCC owners, we will be compelled to intensify our protest. Lives of hundreds of people in Olpad taluka is at stake.”