Farmers protest construction of ethanol factory in Dilawarpur Mandal, Telangana
Farmers in Dilawarpur mandal have protested against a new ethanol factory being built by a Hyderabad-based company. They allege the factory will pollute water and agricultural lands, with 12 lakh liters of water used daily and 8 lakh liters of effluent released into the Sriram Sagar project. The farmers, who had previously been promised a pollution-free facility, organized protests and submitted a memorandum to District Collector Abhilasha Abhinav, urging an immediate halt to construction.
ADILABAD: Farmers in villages in Dilawarpur mandal who have been protesting for the last few months against the proposed ethanol factory, staged yet another protest in front of the collector’s office in Nirmal on Wednesday.
A Hyderabad-based private company is constructing the factory between Dilawarpur and Gundampelly villages. The farmers organised a ‘vanta varpu,’ another form of protest on Tuesday on Nirmal-Bhainsa Road. They demanded an immediate halt to the construction of the factory.
The farmers alleged that the factory management before acquiring land from them had promised to set up a factory that would not pollute water and agricultural lands but began setting up an ethanol plant in 40 acres of land.
The factory when commissioned is expected to utilise 12 lakh litres of water daily from Sriram Sagar project. It would manufacture four lakh litres of ethanol and let out eight lakh litres as effluents back into the Sriram Sagar project. The agricultural land also gets polluted making it unfit for cultivation.
Farmers alleged that already Godavari waters were contaminated by liquor factory effluents in Maharashtra. The water that reaches Basara temple is highly polluted. If an ethanol factory is constructed there would be further pollution of the river water.
The farmers submitted a memorandum to District Collector Abhilasha Abhinav seeking an immediate halt to the construction of the factory. The collector asked the RDO and tahsildar to visit the place and submit a report. She said that she would not allow any work that created problems to the people in the district.
