Buddha Nullah battle: Workers guard dyeing plants as activists threaten to cut lines

Thousands of industrial workers from across the state gathered at Tajpur Road to provide security to the Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) installed by the dyeing industry. The move came following threats from Kale Pani Da Morcha activists to shut down the CETPs as they were playing with the lives of people by polluting the Buddha Nullah.

Police enforced strict security measures, blocking all roads leading to the CETPs within a one-kilometre radius and halting vehicular movement. Despite the barricades, activists gathered near Tajpur Road, raising slogans. They asked the authorities to plug the pipes themselves and they will go back.

At the same time, the industry had arranged huge workforce to safeguard the CETPs from all the sides. Thousands of workers had reached and blocked the roads going towards CETPs. Special vehicles were arranged by the industry to pick up workers to reach at the venue and proper numbers were given to their vehicles, which otherwise are used for loading/unloading of the dyed stocks.

The situation looked tensed. The activists said that police took no time to register FIRs against Punjabis, so they should take action against the migrants and their owners, who were ready to take law in their hands.

Meanwhile, the activists gathered outside Verka Milk Plant to start towards Tajpur Road. Heavy police were deployed there too. The commuters were seen suffering as a man was pleading the cop to let him go to pick his child from school.