The Bahratiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken a serious note of cement factories spreading pollution in Khrew and other adjoining areas in south Kashmir.The BJP spokesman Khalid Jehangir in a statement here said that residents of Khrew and other areas are fed up of the pollution being spread by these factories and they are frequently hitting the streets against these units for putting their lives at stake.The BJP spokesman appealed the Forest and Environment Minister Bali Baghat to call a special team of environmentalist from New Delhi to check whether these factories are taking enough preventive measures or not. “We demand a central team should come and check these cement factories which are posing threat to the lives of people,” he added.Jehangir said, “A recent report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that Khrew has more death rate than any other town in the district due to these factories emanating poisonous gases. These factories emanate 100000 kilograms of toxic fumes, poisonous gases and life threatening elements in the air on daily basis. Lung disease is the main killer, second kidney failure and third heart diseases.”
The BJP spokesman said that government should constitute special squads to check whether the cement factories operating in Khrew and its adjacent areas are following the norms or not and are these factories taking enough precautions to ensure that poisonous gases emanating from these factories is not harmful for the humans putting up in Khrew and adjoining areas.Jehangir said that pollution caused by these factories have destroyed the environment in Pampore and other adjoining areas. “Production of Saffron has declined considerably during all these years and it has been all due to the pollution caused by the cement factories in the area,” he added.