A BJD fact-finding team has accused the BJP Government at the Centre of turning the greenest Jharsuguda to the most polluted district in India.
The coal-fired thermal power plant NTPC operating in Darlipali is a misery for people living close to it. The NTPC produces fly ash in large quantities, making people living close-by sick.
Sadly, these people have been suffering from ill-effects of pollution by NTPC for long.The people living here claim that ash can be seen on roads as far as 15 km from the plant site. The Central Government has been allowing power plants in this locality one after another, which may cause future problems, they added. Former MLA Jogesh Singh and other BJD leaders wondered as to why BJP leaders were not raising the issue before the Central Government. The BJD fact-finding team said that pollution was excess in Jharsuguda district due to rapid industrialisation.
It demanded further that NOC given by the Central Government to NTPC projects at Hiram, Darlipali and border areas of Lakhanpur and Chhattisgarh should be withdrawn.
The fact finding team comprised apart from Singh, former Municipality Chairman Harish Ganatra, senior lawyers Sandeep Awasthi, Raghumani Patel and P Ram Mohan Rao, Jharsuguda block president Digambar Bhoi, Debendra Pati, Benugopal Panigrahi, Motilal Tanti, Zilla Parishad Chairman Laxminarayan Patel, Lakhanpur block president Shantilata Pradhan among others.
