After Taj, Gail ready to help pollution-stricken Agra residents

The Pioneer , Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Correspondent : Vijay Upadhyay
Air pollution causes more than five million deaths each year in India with 66 million vehicles on Indian roads causing more than 70 per cent of this pollution. While such a large number of pollution related fatalities go largely unnoticed, the slowly rotting white marble of the Taj Mahal has been the symbol of global concern about the rising air pollution levels in both the developed and developing countries. As then US President Bill Clinton said during his Agra visit in the year 2000, "Pollution has managed to do what 350 years of wars, invasions and natural disasters have failed to do. It has begun to mar the magnificent walls of Taj Mahal."

After a long legal battle, the Taj may have received some respite from the ambient air pollution around but the plight of the people of Agra, as well as other major towns of the country, remains the same with vehicular fumes, mixed with industrial pollution, playing havoc with the lungs.

The Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), which had taken the initiative back in 1997 to protect the Taj from industrial pollution from over 300 foundry units of the town, is seeking to help the pollution-stricken residents of this town along with 20 other towns of the country where it has been supplying natural gas under its 'Blue Sky' initiative, for both transportation and industries. At a function held in Agra on Monday, D Raj Shekhar, Chief Manager GAIL, presented the Sarojini Naidu Medical College (SNMC) of Agra with a cheque of Rs 20 lakh under its corporate social responsibility initiative to setup an Air Pollution Related Diagnostic Centre (APRDC) in the Tuberculosis department of

the college.

Talking to The Pioneer, Dr Deoki Nandan, Principal of the SNMC, said this funding from GAIL shall be immensely helpful to the college in providing diagnostic facilities and treatment of respiratory diseases among the poor people. He said the centre, when established, shall also work as a research and development centre for community health and environmental awareness programmes. He urged the GAIL to increase funding to enable the college to maintain and upgrade this centre regularly.

'

GAIL officials indicated that Agra is one of the 22 centres it is planning to set up across the country at a cost of Rs 20 lakh each where it is supplying CNG to the transport sector and piped natural gas for domestic and commercial users.

 
SOURCE : The Pioneer, Tuesday, April 05, 2005
 


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