Haridwar DM ordered immediate closure of illegal flour mill

By Pankul Sharma

The Uttarakhand high court, while hearing a PIL demanding the closure of an unlawfully operated flour mill in Haridwar, on Tuesday directed the district magistrate to shut down the mill and furnish a closure report to the court at the earliest.

During the proceedings, the bench of Justice Ravindra Maithani and Justice Alok Kumar Mehra issued a notice to the mill proprietor in Imli Kheda village of Roorkee tehsil. The court also sought a response from the state pollution control board.

According to the litigation, Haridwar resident Rajpal Saini filed a petition in which he said that the flour mill was functioning without requisite authorisations from the industry department and the UKPCB. When grievances were registered on the CM portal by the petitioner and others, the portal forwarded the complaint to the UKPCB for scrutiny. Subsequently, the industry department conducted an enquiry.

During the investigation, when the department requested the proprietor for a licence to operate the flour mill, he failed to produce one and instead intimidated the officials. During the proceedings, counsel representing the UKPCB said that the board conducted two inspections since Jan 2024 after acknowledging the complaint on the CM Portal.

The inspection committee discovered that the mill was contravening noise pollution standards and lacked the mandatory operational permissions. The flour mill is being operated illegally, disregarding statutory requirements. In accordance with the complaint, the board mandated the closure of the mill Tuesday morning, and the report has been dispatched to the govt.

This article has been republished from The Times of India.