By Savikalpa Thapa
Residents of Wakad, Pune will stage a protest rally on Saturday against the severe air pollution caused by the ready mix concrete (RMC) plants operating close to their housing societies.
Although repeated complaints have been made for the past four years, authorities have turned a deaf ear to their plight, leaving residents with no other option but to march from Courtyard Society on Shani Mandir Road to Wakadkar Chowk.
Wakad is an area inhabited by many IT professionals and is developing very fast, with all the attendant construction growing the demand for RMC plants. Unfortunately, three such plants are located a mere 10 feet away from residential complexes, destroying air quality. Concrete dust emanating from the great distances of these plants from the residents and the gaping tucks carrying material has aggravated pollution with its attendant health hazards playing most on children and the elderly.
“The children and the elderly are the most affected. We have been complaining for four straight years with nothing to show for it. This leaves us no choice other than the protest,” says Amol Jadhav of Kohinoor Courtyard Society.
Locals lament the fact that concrete dust continues to cloak the roads since the civic authorities have not sent along cleaning machines. The air quality index remains high for months in the area without being worked upon. The situation is further complicated by jurisdiction tussles. While Wakad is under Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), the RMC plants are technically erected within Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) limits.
Sanjay Kulkarni, head of the PCMC Environment Department, has said PCMC may have sealed three other non-compliant RMC plants but cannot take any action against those under PMRDA jurisdiction. PMRDA officials concede there is a problem; however, they do not have their dedicated environmental department and therefore must rely on Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to accomplish that.
We have forwarded the complaints further for inspection, said Chief Engineer Ashok Bhalekar.