Nagpur: A meeting of local villagers along with officials of Khaparkheda Thermal Power Plant (KTPS) was held at the Conference Hall of the power station on Tuesday.
The meeting started with a round of introduction of all the committee members . Sarpanch from Bhanegaon raised the issue of Nandgaon ash bund closure to which CFSD responded that the agenda of this meeting was to discuss the pollution mitigation plan around the existing ash bund of waregaon , so the committee members should stick to the set agenda .
CFSD appraised the committee members about the Kolar river contamination issue . They even showed them the photos taken in the month of April’22 and requested Mahagenco to clear this ash and come up with a permanent solution to ensure that ash is not discharged into the river . Mahagenco officials informed that there is no ash being disposed of at the moment .. to which Sarpanch of Suradevi , Mr Dudhpachare objected and informed that the ash was still being discharged. It was then decided that a joint field visit should be organized with all committee members and measures should be taken accordingly by Mahagenco. The 2 km long nallah which flows in the forest area adjoining the river is full of ash and this needs to be cleaned by Mahagenco before monsoon to ensure that ash will not enter kolar river.
CFSD also informed them that all such points will be visited before the onset of monsoon so that all these discharges can be stopped . Sarpanch from Bhanegaon suggested that a green filter cloth with 75mm mesh size should be put in order to stop the ash from flowing into the river and regular maintenance of leaked pipelines should be done . This was noted down and Mahagenco said that they will definitely do this.
The village Sarpanch’s specially from Bhanegaon and ex sarpanch from Khaparkheda were all praise for Mahagenco. They said that Mahagenco is providing employment in that region .Bhanegaon Sarpanch Mr Chikhale also said that as their village Bhanegaon has been severely impacted by the WCL mines, they face scarcity of water as the water table has gone down and all the wells in the village are dry. Mahagenco has provided them with drinking water supply . The pipelines have been laid by the gram panchayat and Mahagenco provides them with filtered water .
Suradevi Sarpanch informed the committee about the water pollution near the drinking water lifting point on Kolar river for their village. He informed that the effluent from the STP of Khaparkheda colony is also contaminating the river . Although Mahagenco denied this , they said that a joint site visit can be done to check this .
He also informed the committee that all the water sources are contaminated in his village including the handpumps and the people rely only on the water ATM’s for drinking purposes where they have to purchase the drinking water. He requested Mahagenco to also provide them with filtered drinking water just like how they do in Bhanegaon and Khaparkheda. Mahagenco has asked the sarpanch to put up a proposal for the same and that they will process the request at their headquarters for approval.
Mr Pavan Dhurvey , sarpanch from Pota chankapur raised the issue of coal dust from the plying trucks carrying coal to their plant. He said that the trucks are not covered especially during night time . Mahagenco officials asked him to send them pictures with the truck numbers visible , so that they can take appropriate action against the contractors. He also requested them to look into the Tax proposal submitted to Mahagenco.
CFSD enquired about the water testing and Air quality monitoring reports and requested Mahagenco to provide this information on a regular basis to the villagers and committee members.
CFSD also requested Mahagenco that although it is mentioned that the meeting will be conducted once in 3 months, they can call for an emergency meeting whenever there is an issue and need, to which Mahagenco agreed .
CE , Mr Ghughe asked his official Mr Pakhan to fix up a date for the joint site visit in coordination with CFSD and the sarpanchs .
CFSD brought up the issue of the health problems and the possibility of regular health camps and other health facilities for the villagers. Mahagenco informed that they just have a public health care centre and didn’t give much commitment to the health facilities .
CFSD then proposed to conduct a massive tree plantation drive in all the villages and the ash bunds and celebrate the world environment day in collaboration with the villagers . Mahagenco said that they can do this for the entire week . Bhanegaon surpanch said that they can provide free saplings of Bamboo and other trees also. Suradevi Sarpanch said that they should provide with fruiting tree saplings which they can plant as all gram-panchayats have the provision of labour’s to dig pits for plantation.
Mahagenco will soon chalk out this plan for the plantation and share it with all.
Overall the meeting was positive, although there were some differences of opinions of the onsite pollution , but everybody thought that this could be solved with joint visits .
The sarpanchs informed that they have been writing a lot of letters to Mahagenco since 2007 … but they never got much response from them. They are now very hopeful that through this committee a lot of their grievances and demands will be fulfilled by Mahagenco. This platform will also be helpful in exchanging information about schemes and other issues with each other.
CFSD affirmed that all this will be done with the focus on mitigating pollution on ground and for the welfare of the people who live there
