Rana Sugars Private Limited today hit back and lashed out at Aam Aadmi Party leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira for trying to run a malicious campaign against it for petty partisan and personal reasons. The company challenged the AAP leader to prove even one of the several charges he has been leveling against it during the last several days.The company clarified that it was running strictly according to the norms of the environment ministry and pollution control board and had obtained all the mandatory clearances, which were renewed from time to time after proper scrutiny and examination.The company also strongly denied that it ever tried to stop Khaira from visiting the sugar mill premises in Buttar Sivian near here. “It is so characteristic of Mr Khaira to resort to theatrics and create a hype and eventually beat a hasty retreat taking one excuse or the other”, Rana Veer Partap Singh, one of the Directors of the company and a son of Rana Gurjeet, said while responding to Khaira’s charges that he was deliberately prevented from visiting the mill.
Responding to the allegations that the mill was pumping the water into the local drains which had caused diseases, Rana Veer Partap said, the company has been recycling and reusing the water that comes out of sugar generation. He said, on an average 8 lakh litres of water was generated every day during the season that lasts for about four and a half months.“If that quantum of water is released into the drain everyday, as Mr Khaira alleges, it will be flooded and not dry down”, he clarified, while adding, not a single drop of water is let out from the mill premises into the drain or any other place in or around the village.Refuting Khaira’s charge that the company had set up a “reverse bore-well” inside the premises to pump the waste water back into the ground, Veer Pratap challenged him (Khaira) that if he could prove it (existence of reverse bore-well) they will shut down the mill”.
“In sheer ignorance and arrogance Khaira is trying to level contradictory allegations against us”, he clarified while pointing out, “he (Khaira) says, we are throwing the waste water into the drain and have also set up a reverse bore-well, both of which are incorrect”. If someone is throwing waste water into the drain why does he need to set up a reverse bore-well and vice versa, he asked, while referring to Khaira’s ignorance in the matter.The company official said that although the mill was running strictly according to the norms and procedures, it will still welcome another inspection by the environment experts or officials of the ministry and Pollution Control Board. “But even that will not satisfy Mr Khaira as he continues to suffer from pathological hatred for Rana Gurjeet borne out of personal jealousy and can stoop to any low to malign his image”, the Rana Veer Partap said, adding, otherwise he should be seen in Kiri Afghana the actual place of molasses spill into Beas where he preferred not to go.