PONDA: Marcaim villagers on Thursday confronted the officials of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and Health over “pollution caused by the factories and illegalities” at the local industrial estate.
After the confrontation, the villagers have set a deadline of seven days for stopping the pollution and clearing the illegalities at the Marcaim Industrial Estate.
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Led by local activists Premanand Gaude and Adv Varad Mardolkar, the locals questioned the IDC field officer Hanumanth Mandrekar for his “failure” to take action against several “illegalities” taking place at Marcaim Industrial Estate.
Gaude said that many people complained to them that workers were accommodated in unhygienic rooms by the industries and they were defecating in the open. Following this, a joint inspection was conducted by IDC, Marcaim Panchayat, Marcaim Health Centre and a local activist group on December 12, last year. During the inspection the complaints were found to be true. An inspection report was also prepared.
“However, even two months after the inspection, no action has been taken on the erring industries by the officials of IDC and Health,” Gaude complained.
“If common man violates rules their water and electricity is disconnected, then, why the same law is not applied against the erring industries?” he questioned.
Meanwhile, the villagers also confronted the local sanitary inspector for an hour demanding action against the industries causing pollution.
Adv Mardolkar said, “We gave a deadline of seven days and demanded a meeting on February 27 to sort out the issues.”
He claimed that four steel units at the industrial estate were housing workers at the units’ premises itself. The condition of the toilets in these units is unhygienic and the workers are releasing wastewater in the open polluting the surroundings.
The Marcaim villagers also complained that the industries were not providing jobs to the locals. They demanded that all the jobs at the industrial units should be reserved for the villagers of Marcaim and nearby villages.
To press for their demanded, the villagers have asked the IDC to convene a meeting of the managers of all the factories in the industrial units to impress upon them to offer all their jobs to the locals. The villagers have demanded that the meeting be convened before February 27, failing which, they have threatened to confront the IDC officials again and agitate till their demand is fulfilled.
