145;Coal146;lateral damage: Naroda residents

Pleas and protests by the public as well as their representatives have failed to move the authorities at various levels: right from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to the Gujarat Pollution Control Board GPCB. The most affected areas include Premnagar, Ambedkarnagar, Shaktinagar and Nadianagar with a population of nearly thirty thousand people.

There are over a dozen textile processing units in the vicinity of Saijpur Bogha ward that use lignite and cause large-scale air pollution. Their chimneys emit loads of coal dust, especially at night.

Local municipal councillors Dr Krishna Thakar, Dr Ganpat Parmar and Deepak Makwana say they have pointed out this problem in the past, but suspect that civic officials are routinely bribed into inaction because of which the problem persists.

Thakar and others have demanded the early closure of the polluting units or changes in their functioning. They have threatened to organise public protests and demonstrations outside the AMC zonal office on Naroda Road if no action is taken within a week.

Thakar, who is a medical practitioner, said that due to the coal dust settling atop houses, people living within a 10 sq km radius are exposed to serious diseases like asthma, tuberculosis, rheumatism and stomach ulcers.

8220;The factory owners bribe not only the civic officials but even the local politicians regularly and this is the root cause of inaction. Only cosmetic action has been taken all these years,8221; said Thakar. He added: 8220;I don8217;t care about political implications. This problem has to be solved for the sake of the local residents who have been suffering for several years now.8221;

Champaben Jayantibhai Parmar, a housewife who lives in Ambedkarnagar locality, said: 8220;We cannot sleep in the open out of fear of inhaling the coal dust that also blackens mattresses. My neighbours feel breathless at night.8221;

Suresh Nadiya, a government employee living in Shaktinagar says that burning coal particles flying in the air often land up on clothes causing small fires. 8220;We have complained to the health officials in the ward several times, but to no effect,8221; he said. Another local resident, Rekhaben Jayantibhai Mewada, is quite sceptical about the issue. She said, 8220;Some action follow after a lot of complaints, but the effect lasts only for a few days.8221;

Contrary to the councillors8217; statements, Deputy Municipal Commissioner U C Padia said that no one has complained to him about the matter so far. 8220;If any comes up even now, I will have the matter investigated and solve the problem,8221; he said.

K C Mistry, regional officer at Ahmedabad said: 8220;We have carried out preliminary investigations in the Naroda-Saijpur belt, from where there have been many complaints regarding industrial pollution in the past also. We have taken samples of the pollutants and have sent them to Gandhinagar for a detailed analysis, on the basis of which we will take corrective action.8221;

With inputs from GauravSharma