Yvonne Webb

Vil­lagers of Pi­paro have pe­ti­tioned the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) to stop con­struc­tion of a poul­try farm in the mid­dle of the vil­lage.Spokesman for the 81 vil­lagers, Do­minic Han­sraj, is ap­peal­ing to the au­thor­i­ty to stop the con­struc­tion be­fore the sit­u­a­tion gets out of hand.In the pe­ti­tion ad­dressed to Christo­pher Ward of the EMA, res­i­dents ex­pressed their dis­ap­proval over con­struc­tion of the farm.They claim they are al­ready af­fect­ed by pun­gent odours from an ex­ist­ing farm man­aged by the same own­ers who are propos­ing to ex­pand their op­er­a­tions on a two-acre plot. The res­i­dents have al­so ex­pressed con­cern about the dis­pos­ing of poul­try car­cass­es in the area.A video ti­tled "Tur­moil in Pi­paro," cur­rent­ly on YouTube, show­ing pic­tures of dead and de­com­pos­ing chick­ens dumped in Arch Trace, Pi­paro, last No­vem­ber, prompt­ed a vis­it to the area by the EMA on Thurs­day.

Han­sraj said EMA com­pli­ance of­fi­cers ex­plained that they could take no ac­tion un­til the farm has been built."They told us they can on­ly of­fer guide­lines as there is no ex­ist­ing farm," he said.Han­sraj said they had ap­pealed to their Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Su­ruj Ram­bachan, who promised to as­sist and had asked for cer­tain doc­u­ments from the res­i­dents. "We have no prob­lems with the farm­ers build­ing a poul­try farm...We are say­ing build it away from the vil­lage," Han­sraj said."We are ap­peal­ing to the au­thor­i­ties to have this stopped be­fore it gets start­ed."