Residents of Emmetti village in Kalghatgi taluk of the district staged a protest here on Monday opposing the government’s move to create a ‘safe zone’ for stone-crushing units near their village.
They staged a protest outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office here, stating that creation of the safe zone would be detrimental to the health of the people.
Earlier, they took out a protest march.
The State government had proposed the safe zone near the village after a Supreme Court order to create such zones in each district from where stone-crushing units could function.
However, the villagers said the safe zone would adversely affect the ecosystem of the region. They said while the court had said that the safe zone should be located at least 2 km away from the village perimeter, tank sites, and monuments, the land identified by the government was hardly half a km away from a school, a temple, a tank and the road leading to the village.
Installing the crusher units would pollute the air and water, and adversely affect the irrigated agriculture land in the vicinity.
Memorandum
They submitted a memorandum signed by hundreds of residents to the district administration, calling for withdrawal of the order on creation of safe zone.
They said that they would be forced to launch an agitation if the government failed to withdraw the GO immediately.
