Udupi: The Hosooru village situated at Thenkabailu, Karge Panchayat is facing lot of problems due to an illegal crusher factory in the locality.
The crushers belong to three persons Harsha Shetty, Jeevan Shetty and also former panchayat member Suresh Shetty.
The villagers claimed that the crusher factory is running illegally. The villagers alleged that the factory owners had acquired permission for a chain cutting factory, but now they are running a crusher here instead.
Under the Rajeev Gandhi Housing Scheme, there were hundreds of houses in and around 500 meters of the crusher company. The crusher created a mess of the natural resources in the village. The company has submitted false information to get permission. The crusher company has blocked the road to Soma Nayak’ s house, which he got from government under Akrama Sakrama scheme, 3 years back.
A stream (peradoor hole) which connects to the Sita River was closed with mud to facilitate truck to carry crushed stones. Legally, the company has purchased 4.5 acres of land. However they are using land surrounding it illegally.
Revenue and forest department has clearly objected to the use of any machine in the company, however they have installed a crushing machine and are planning to blast the stone.
On Thursday, Forest department ,Tahasildar and Environment department officials together were supposed to have a re- inspect the work done here and submit the report to mining and geology department however no officials turned up. The public have demanded to stop the crusher factory immediately.
Shiva Kumar, social activist said, “If government wants the development of villages, it should facilitate industries which are eco-friendly and will create more job opportunities to the youth. We had already given memorandums to every officer and leader, but it has of been no use”.
“We have houses within 100 meters surrounding the crusher, the dust inversely affects the people’s health. The forest comes under Someshwara reserved forest, hence the blast may scare the wild animals also,” says Dr U Sanjeeva shetty.
Jayanthi said that, in this panchayat 70 % of people are farmers. Crusher will throw animals away from the forest and farmers will become homeless. This is a rich peoples project, she alleged.
