NASHIK: A bus carrying 14 workers of a company at Rasegaon was burnt on Saturday evening while it was on its way to the factory. No death has been reported, but some workers were injured. A case has been registered at Dindori police station.
Some miscreants threw balls of fire inside the bus belonging to Spectrum Ethers, which manufactures pesticides, the police said. The workers in the bus were terrified and ran out of the bus, they said.
Milind Kolhe, managing director of Spectrum Ethers, said this is an act of miscreants with malafide designs to create a rift between the villagers and the factory.
Rasegaon is a village some 20 km from Nashik on Peth Road. The villagers had a problem with the odour emanating from the factory while manufacturing pesticides. In August, they had alleged that effluent from the factory was polluting water in the nearby Palkhed dam. The administration had then asked the company to stop production.
“If there is any contamination, it is not because of our factory as we do not release any
effluent,” Kolhe said. “The effluent is collected in evaporating tanks, which are covered during rainy season to prevent the effluent from overflowing. All procedures in the factory are according to law and conform to pollution control board’s norms,” he said.
He said the company has obtained a stay from court on notices from the administration and the pollution control board asking it to wind up its operations in Rasegaon.
“According to the stay order, I am allowed to resume production. But I have not done so, because I want to first win the confidence of the villagers,” he said. “I have installed a new system of evaporation that takes care of the odour as well,” he said.
However, the tension between the villagers and the factory has not subsided. Three workers in the bus, in fact, ran into the fields nearby, fearing attack by villagers. They remained in the fields till midnight.
