50 villages in Ghaziabad hit by environmental pollution; peoples’ group seeks UP CM’s intervention

LUCKNOW: A people’s group based in city has sought chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s intervention to solve pollution problem marring life of villagers in Ghaziabad district.

The group, called India Rejuvenation Initiative (IRI) has people like retired justice RC Lahoti and LM Lyngdoh on board besides others. IRI’s campaign committee member, HC Pande has apprised the CM about air and water pollution prevalent in around 50 villages in Ghaziabad.

“The problem has assumed serious nature now though it has persisted for years. A team from IRI went to the affected area where villagers shared that apart from large-scale damages to agriculture, pollution was causing disease in them,” Pande said.

His letter also endorses a letter to district magistrate of Ghaziabad which claims that water flowing from Tronica City into canal had led to massive damages to farmland in the area. The villagers, because of foul smell all around, were not able to work on their fields. “The distributed temperature sensing (DTS) level of river Hindon around villages Ghari, Siraura, Bhoopkheri, Bhanera, Aslatpur and Farrukhnagar had gone up dangerously,” it read.

“The alarming rise of cases of cancer, heart attack, kidney and continuous fever has become matter of concern and at least 50% population has been suffering from respiratory diseases in the region. The IRI team was told that at least 70% population had been taking medicines for one or other ailment. Air pollution, causing respiratory trouble, has also led to acute problem of wide spread obesity,” said Prof Pande.

IRI maintains that chief minister’s education in pollution control will help him understand the issue better and therefore, they brought the matter to his notice. “We have urged the CM to direct the district administration, UP State Industrial Development Corporation and UP Pollution Control Board to take immediate corrective measures to stop water and air pollution in the area,” demanded IRI.