The members and the supporters of Chirang district unit of Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) are continuing their protest against the Carbon Resource Private Limited located at Dhaligaon in Chirang district of Assam alleging that it is “polluting the residential areas in and around the industry”.
The protest entered its eighth day on Thursday. The said industrial unit was established in the year 2010 in Dhaligaon. The local BPF leader Pani Ram Brahma had filed a case against the industry in 2016. On Wednesday, the Chirang district administration had enforced Section 144 CrPC and ousted the protesters from the venue near the industry to allow the industry to carry on with its normal operations. On Thursday, the protestors carried on with their protest programme at a venue little away from the said industry.
Meanwhile, a 12-member group of officials from the Pollution Control Board (PCB), Assam (headquartered in Guwahati), visited the industry on Thursday and inspected the machinery units and the surroundings of the industry to “assess the quantum of pollution”. The team said all the findings will be mentioned in their report.
It is reported that the PCB team did not deem it necessary to visit the store house besides the said industry, in which Brahmaputra Carbon Limited, another carbon industry of New Bongaigaon, reportedly keeps huge quantities of Raw Petroleum Coke (RPC) which hugely pollutes the water and soil. The team “did not think it necessary” to check the extent of water and soil pollution caused by the carbon dust.
Taking into note the “nonchalant attitude” of the PCB officials, the Bongaigaon district unit general secretary of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) Nandan Debnath has demanded that the PCB and the Assam Government conduct all the tests and monitor the extent of pollution caused by these carbon industries at Dhaligaon, Sundari and New Bongaigaon. Nandan warned that if the PCB officials and the State Government “drag their feets over the pollution check measures, the KMSS will no longer be a mute spectator”.