"The plant owners said that most of the residential buildings have cropped up in the area in the past five to six years. They claimed to have been operating in that area since 1937 and are protesting the directives to them by the MPCB," said Amar Durgule.

Durgule said, quoting the factory owners, that the residential complexes had been built without necessary approvals from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. "The area was primarily an industrial zone and residential buildings have cropped up only recently."

The MPCB is currently in the process of verifying the permits issued by the civic body to the developers and is also going to carry out site inspections that was scheduled when air pollution tests revealed respirable suspended particulate matter to be thrice the normal limit.

Following this, the pollution control board issued directives to the industrial plants to install the mandatory pollution control devices. They also scheduled an inspection to check compliance of their directives, but it had not happened until recently. "We had tried to conduct the inspection but the plants were closed so we could not check for compliance," said Durgule

Local resident Nishith Bhandari said, "It is easy the plant owners, MPCB and BMC to pass the buck between themselves, but why should we pay the price with our health? We have been dealing with inhuman levels of air pollution in the area and someone has to put a stop to it. We will wait for the inspection by the MPCB to check for compliance by the. If no action is taken, we will approach higher authorities. All we want is a better environment to live and raise our children in."

The origins of the dispute can be traced to early March when residents from the area had complained about the high levels of air pollution caused by surrounding bitumin and stone-crushing plants. Many residents said they had developed respiratory diseases due to heavy air pollution in the area.