Petition requesting MPCB to penalize polluting industries
Prashant Nikale
Nashik: The air pollution in Nashik is raising its head and getting serious every day. The Nashikites are currently signing an online petition on air pollution, requesting the Regional Officer of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), Jitendra Sangewar, Chairman of MPCB, Sudhir Shrivastava and Environment Minister Eknath Shinde to penalize the polluting industries in Nashik.
So far around 80 Nashikites have signed this petition in the last three days and the number is growing fastly. The petition has requested MPCB to penalize the industries not following the norms of the MPCB in an industrial area. Secondly, it has requested data of the Air Quality Station of the Satpur area from October 29 onwards.
The petition campaign has been created by an organization named Jhatka which creates online campaigns for civic issues throughout the country. The petition says, “The national discourse around air pollution is usually focused on metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune. Nashik, however, is always portrayed as a clean alternative to these metro cities.
But this picture has started to change in the last few years. Residents of areas surrounding Satpur have started facing heavy smog at night and early mornings during winters. Since November 2019 Nashik’s Air Quality is worsening at an alarming rate.
An air quality measurement by Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) found Nashik’s Air Quality Index to be above 150 for 12 consecutive days in November.” “The overall rise of pollution as indicated by CPCB is just the tip of the iceberg.
Parts of the city surrounding Industrial areas are experiencing air pollution problems on a daily basis. Satpur MIDC is one such area where Smog has become a daily problem. The pollution around Satpur MIDC in Sant Kabir Nagar, Ambad link road, Serene Meadows is visible to the naked eye! This is especially true for emissions at night making the smog problem worse in the winters”, states the petition further.
The campaigner Roshan Kedar has requested Nashikites to sign the online petition to raise a voice against the air pollution and make the authorities to take step. The Nashikites can sign the petition on airalert.in and help the public movement grow.
