The joint action committee of residents of the
town against air pollution being caused by the thermal power house of
the PSEB here has decided to file a petition on the issue in the high
court as the authorities have failed to check emission of ash that was
spoiling the health of the people.
Leaders of the committee were annoyed over the
failure of the PSEB to meet its commitment of renovating the units
that were emitting ash. The PSEB had fixed several deadlines for
accomplishing the task, but has failed to do so.
MM Behal, convener of the committee, told the
The Tribune yesterday that the only option left before them was to
approach the high court in the matter.
Behal claimed that the PSEB had earlier told the
committee in November last year that the renovation and modernisation
of the units III and IV would be completed by May this year. However,
another commitment was made in October this year that the job was
expected to be taken in hand in early December when the unit IV would
be modernised and after its stabilisation work on unit III would be
started.
However, sources in the PSEB pointed out that
the work might not start soon as the BHEL, that has been assigned the
job of renovation and modernisation, has yet to finalise the
contracts.
The issue was brought to notice of Jairam Ramesh
when he visited here a few months ago in his capacity as the Power
Minister.
Residents of the town were now growing restive,
as the level of air pollution has increased due to the winter.
Behal pointed out that a committee of doctors
from various specialties in its report in January 2006 had warned that
eye, ENT, respiratory and skin diseases were increasing in the town
due to air pollution caused by the thermal station. This had also
become a source of tuberculosis, the report said.
