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THAT bringing in political support tohighlight industry vs environmentalissues could be disastrous, should havedawned on Agra's industrialists and factory owners on September 5.
While their call for an Agra bandhwas only moderately successful withschools, banks and government officesremaining open, the intended demonstration at the Taj Mahal turned out tobe a fiasco, with political has-beensmaking some mileage from the issue.
Over 50 people were arrested, andabout 100 others injured when a sectionof the gathering, pelted stones on thepolice who tried to thwart their progresstowards the monument.
The attempt by the Taj TrapeziumUdyog Sangharsh Samiti comprisingindustry and factory owners, to generatepopular support fell flat. The Samiti hadbeen on dharna at an infeisection nearthe monument since early S mber.This chain of events had been iggeredoff as the petition seeking a review of theearlier order of the Supreme Court relocating Agra's industries to Etawah, tosave the Taj from pollution, is dueto come up before a Division Benchof the Court on September 8.
Speaking to Down To Earth,Samiti spokespersons state that theywere wrongly being penalised on thegrounds of pollution. They claim thatpollution control equipments, whereverrequir'e-d, have been installed and thatemissions and discharge from factoriesand units were well within the specifiedlimits of the State Pollution Control Boards.
Slimiti members state that due to theextremely poor power supply, not justfactories and industries, but residentialareas and hundreds of hotels in the cityhave installed power generators. "Thesetwo sources account for most of the pollution in the city," states YashpalVarma, a Samiti spokesperson. Othermembers add that they were againstpoliticising the issue as the course of theprotest may be charted by those having vested interests.
They claim that a ring road by-passing Agra, would ensure that the 50,000-odd goods vehicles thai cross the city would not have to do so and pollutethe city.