Peerzada Arshad Hamid

Islamabad/Anantnag

Continuous haze, round the clock deafening noise and a beeline of trucks is all one can see in the vicinity of stone crushers set up at village Bumthan.

Inhabitants of the village continue to suffer because of the ill–effects caused by these stone crushers that as per villagers have made their life ‘hell’.

Residents have been knocking the doors of concerned authorities. However, they are yet to see an end to their woes. The pollution due to crushers is severely telling upon the health of the inhabitants. 

“We moved an application to Deputy Commissioner, Islamabad informing him about the nuisance and requesting him to close down the stone crushers in the larger interest of public,” says Parviz Ahmad, a resident.

Public grievance made the Deputy Commissioner to seek an on spot report from the local revenue official. Beyond that villagers say action is still awaited.

As per the report submitted by revenue official: Two stone crushers set up in the village Bumthan are the source of air and noise pollution. Columns of dust emanate from these crushers continuously and have posed a threat to the health of people.

The report says that stone crushers have been installed on government land bearing number453 twenty years before. The owners claim to have set the crushers after obtaining proper licensee from the government but they failed to substantiate their claim by producing the said document on spot.

According to villagers majority of residents are suffering from chest diseases. “My father and uncle both died due to the TB caused by the dust,” says Abdul Hamid Mir

On the other hand villagers say that the noise pollution caused due to stone crushers has become a source of inconvenience does for them.

“My daughter often complains about the noise as she can’t study in such an aura,” says Hamid, who has made his mind to migrate from the ancestral place to save the future of his daughter.

The villagers who have even taken the matter to the district Pollution Control Board (PCB) office complain that the department too failed to redress their grievance.