pollution VIII

Fly ash a perpetual problem for city residents
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

A resident of Dhobiana Basti cooking food while sitting on the mound of fly ash dumped in the area on Sunday. Tribune photos: Malkiat Singh

Bathinda, November 2
The problem of fly ash is ubiquitous in Bathinda. And it is not only the chimneys of the thermal power plant here that spew this health hazard but also other industrail units located here like the National Fertilisers Limited. The problem is not only visible in the outlying areas of the city but also in posh colonies.
The heaps of fly ash have made the life of residents miserable and the indifference of the authorities have only worsened the problem. To tide over the problem, fly ash was lifted from the dumping ground and spread in the low-lying areas of the city.
This coupled with the fact that the change in wind direction after winter sets in here results in fly ash being deposited even on rooftops in colonies here has only exacerbated the problem.
On the one hand, the ruling party and government officials claim that the city would be developed on the pattern of European cities but it appears to be a distant dream keeping in view the actual condition here.

During a random visit to the Dhobiana Basti and Urban Estate Phase III, the low-lying areas in the city, the TNS team found a number of women cooking amid the dusty air and children playing in the heaps of fly ash, a health hazard.
When asked why they were living amid the fly ash, they spoke of their disillusionment with official policies.
“Look at the face of my six-yar-old daughter. The allergy has affected her face. My father-in-law too has a respiratory problem just because of the problem of fly ash which we have to put up with round-the-clock,” rued Bhinder Kaur.
Pointing at her seven-year-old son, Rahul, whose skin too has been affected by another form of allergy, her mother blamed the authorities concerned and said, “The ash will kill us as we lack resources and can not move anywhere else.”
“See this chapati, can you eat it? I know that you people can never consume it as the contents of fly ash are quite visible in it. But we are helpless.” These were the words of 30-year-old Gurdev Kaur, who was cooking food, sitting on the mound of grey ash.
An elderly person, Harbhagwan Singh, said, “Dumping the fly ash in this colony, where we people, who have no value in the eyes of government officers, reside is twin strategy of the officials. On the one hand, they want us to shift from this area and on the other, they want to accommodate the company that generates this waste.”
“We read many a time that the State Human Rights Commission takes notice of such incidents and orders immediate action in this regard. But here, we are waiting for the day when someone will pay heed to this menace,” said Gurmail Singh, an octogenarian living in the area.
When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tewari said, “The fly ash was laid to fill the low-lying areas. Soon, we will put a layer of soil over the ash so that it does not harm anyone.”