Lanjigarh: The people who live in the Kalahandi district are really suffering because of the fly ash that comes out of the Vedanta alumina refinery. Every day a lot of trucks carry fly ash from Lanjigarh to Bhawanipatna on State Highway 6. This is causing a lot of problems on the road and the people who live around there are getting really scared and sick.
The people who live there are saying that most of these trucks are carrying way much fly ash. They are not even covered. When they drive fast on the highway they make a cloud of bad dust that covers everything. This is happening near junctions like Pokharibandh and Chhatikuda.
The people who walk on the road ride motorcycles. Live in villages near the road are having the worst time. The bad air is hurting their eyes, nose and throat. The doctors in the area are also seeing a lot of people with breathing problems and other bad health issues.
The bad pollution is not just in the air. The fly ash is also getting into the rivers, canals and village ponds. Making the water bad.
The bad water is killing a lot of fish and crabs. The people who live in the villages and use this water to take baths and do things are getting really bad skin infections and rashes.
The truck drivers are also driving badly which is causing a lot of accidents on the road. A few days ago a truck carrying fly ash from Lanjigarh lost control and turned over near an oil paddy field and it was lucky that nobody got hurt.
With all these problems the local government is not doing anything. The people who live there are saying that the Tehsil office, the police and the Transport Department are not checking if the trucks are overloaded or if they are polluting the air.
The people who live in Kalahandi district are really upset because even after they protested and blocked the roads the Vedanta management and the district administration are still not listening to them.
The people are now asking for some things to be done: they want the rules for transporting fly ash from Lanjigarh to be followed they want the trucks to be covered they want the highway to be cleaned regularly and they want something to be done to stop the pollution so they can live in an healthy environment, in Lanjigarh.
