NAWABSHAH Oct 26: Enraged residents of Mir Hassan Khaskheli, Khati, Panwhar, Brohi, Rustamani and Rind villages have demanded of the government to help shift the sugar mill operating within the city limits, as it has become a threat to the otherwise neat and clean environment of the city and the adjoining areas.

Talking to newsmen here on Friday, a large number of residents of these villages complained that the industrial waste including the burnt ashes, being disposed of by the mill, has become a permanent source of nuisance.

They said that a stinking smell is felt by the residents almost throughout the year even if the doors of the houses are closed.

They said that the smell has made their lives miserable and apprehended that they may contract chest diseases if the mill was not immediately shifted.

Some of them even complained that due the sugar mill wastes, their cultivable land have turned barren.

They threatened to stage a hunger strike in front of the press club if no preventive steps were not taken.

Repeated efforts to contact the mill officials remained futile as none of them responded to phone calls made by this correspondent.