Multan, Oct 9: A private fertilizer company has issued notices to the residents of a government housing colony, located in the vicinity of its plant, asking them to vacate a strip of land which the firm claims belongs to it.

The notices issued by Pakarab Fertilizer Company’s General Manager (Admin & Human Resource) Brig Umair Ahmed (retired) to the residents of New Multan Colony’s “V” Block residents say that the 132-feet-wide strip carrying effluent-disposal channel of the plant is owned by the company, asking them to dismantle the greenbelt along the land, besides vacating any constructions on it. The company, owned by Multan district nazim, threatened residents to use law-enforcing agencies if they failed to follow its directions.

It has been learnt that the `disputed’ land comprising a green-belt and the drain belongs to the housing colony and irrigation department, respectively. After making the fertilizer plant operational in the area in 1960-61, the company administration, instead of making some appropriate arrangements for treatment and disposal of factory effluents, started disposing them into Multan branch canal. Later, residential schemes started emerging along the disposal route. Residents of these schemes objected to the improper effluent disposal by the company and approached the Wafaqi Mohtasib for resolution of the problem.

The Pakarab Fertilizer Corporation took the stand that the plant effluents were being disposed of in the abandoned Durrana Langhana Canal belonging to the irrigation and power department. According to a map approved by deputy-director, Housing and Physical Planning, the greenbelt fell under the limits of the New Multan, Block “V”, and is supposed to be maintained by the Shah Rukin-e-Alam Town Municipal Authority.

Mr Umair Ahmed denied that the notices issued with his signatures claimed the company’s ownership of the land. The company issued the notices for the safety of the people living in the vicinity of the plant, because sometimes the effluents overflowed and they could be harmful for the area residents, some of whom had built toilets and other structures on the drain’s bank, he claimed.

However, he couldn’t clarify why the company wanted the greenbelt to be dismantled and threatened the use of force. — Correspondent