 Arun Singh
Early Times Report
Jammu, June 11: At a time when environmental issues have taken a centre stage even at the international forums, an illegal brick kiln in Jandrah area is threatening to dry up the sacred Devika river, which has a huge historic and mythological importance for the people of the region, besides being only source of quenching their thirst. The residents of village told Early Times that the brick kiln has been set up on agriculture land in the residential area illegally and has been running for the past one decade. The owner of the Bick Kiln has got two bore wells dug which continue to run twenty four hours and with the course of time the water level has reduced to a dangerous level which has shown its impact this year. Moreover, the heat produced by Brick Kiln is also one of the reasons of drying up of water flowing underground.
"Besides, the smoke emanating from the Kiln has polluted the entire village as ashes of smoke can be seen on cloths hanged in the open to dry," they said.
They further informed that just 500 meters from the Brick Kiln two Government schools including Middle School and Higher Secondary School have been running where hundreds of the students study and are threatened by the pollution caused by it. "The village has approximately 500 families which meet their drinking water requirements through well water and many religious rituals, particularly cremation of the dead are performed in the Devika but due to drying up of Devika, the people have been facing huge problem," they said.
Astonishingly, giving the importance to Devika River, Government of India has approved Rs 170 crore for cleaning river Devika but despite that blatant violation by illegal Brick Kiln in Jindrah is unabated. Although, the issue has been brought into the notice of District Administration in this connection but nothing has been done till date. |
