The environment department is acting like an anti-social agency to discourage all development, especially poultry farming. Certain influential and prominent persons have made farm houses off the Raiwind road in the rural area. There are some poultry farms that were established much earlier in the area near the farm houses which were built years later.
Now the environment department officials are harassing the poultry farmers in Baddoki area which are located at a safe distance from these farm houses. This practice is resulting in discouraging the poultry farmers who have invested millions of rupees in developing commercial farms which cannot be disbanded without ruining the business of poultry farmers. The high and mighty of Punjab should not behave like the new Mughals to push out the weaker segments of society by strong-arm tactics operated through minions of environment department, which ought to confine its activities to urban areas rather than agricultural areas where livestock and poultry would produce dung and droppings that is unavoidable.
DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
