'Taloja is already sick, why add a dumping ground here?'

The villagers of Taloja feel cheated Authorities allegedly took farmersrsquo land here in the name of development decades ago and not only set up industries but also used it as a dumping ground Villagers allege their produce has been affected and the water and the air have been contaminated due to pollution from a biomedical waste processing plant and the factories set up here instead Now more of the land will get heaps of garbage coming from all over Mumbai as a new dumping ground will be created here They are determined to stop this from happeningAlso Read Deonar fire Smoke drives locals out of their homesThe damaged brinjal crop in a village Villagers allege that the produce is affected due to the soil contamination PicsSwarali PurohitThe creation of the new dumping ground at Taloja had been in the offing for a few years Originally owned by the state government the 52hectare land was handed to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC in January for creating a new dumping ground But when midday visited the site last week there was no board declaring BMCrsquos ownership thereSunil Patil Dhanaji Maharaj Patil centre and Gopinath Patil say their villages are already suffering from pollution and the dumping ground will add to itA fire broke out in the Deonar dumping ground about a month back and altered the cityrsquos solid waste management scenario The villagers in Taloja fear that they will have the same problems if a dumping ground comes up hereRead Story Latest fire at Deonar act of sabotage claims civic chiefVillagers who can afford it drink mineral water and containers of it can be seen in some houses like this oneThe villagesThe cluster of villages located at Taloja include Ghot Ghotwada Turma Karavle Bhoirwada and Taloja with a population of around 50000 There is only one primary school here and no healthcare centre nearby Villagers mostly practice smallscale farming of rice and vegetablesContamination has led to many issues in the villages There are several wells in Karavle village But many villagers drink mineral water They say this is because of the contamination of groundwater due to the effluents allegedly let into the soil by the factoriesldquoLast year I had planted vegetables worth Rs 50000 expecting returns upto Rs 2 lakh All I got was R40000 worth How are we to liverdquo asked Ranjana Bhoir a resident of neighbouring BhoirwadaThe contaminationThe word lsquocompanyrsquo makes every villager frown The villagers refer to the processing plant and other factories set up here by the wordldquoA lot of biomedical waste from across Mumbai is brought here and burnt at night We cannot keep our doors and windows open after nightfall not only because of mosquitoes but also because of the stenchrdquo complained Gajanan Patil a farmer His family buys cans of mineral water for drinkingHis wife Nandabai claimed that new mothers donrsquot start lactating soon here due to hormonal problems She also said girls hit puberty soonldquoMost of the groundwater is not potable any more Our land does not yield what it used to Even the vegetables donrsquot taste the same Babies are born weak Small children suffer from irritation in the eyes respiratory problems diarrhoea All this happened after the company camerdquo alleged Naresh Patil another residentPlanning a protestThe exSarpanch of their group panchayat Gopinath Patil said ldquoOur farmers gave them land and they poisoned our water and soil Our lives are wasted now But we will not let this happen to the next generationrdquo Patil along with several others has formed the Sadguru Wamanbaba Maharaj Pradushan Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti antipollution committee They protested when district authorities visited the villages last yearldquoIn Ghot 45 persons have suffered unnatural deaths since the company came It is the children who generally suffer the most Every person in Ghot is on medication for some ailment or the otherrdquo said Dhanaji Maharaj Patil convenor of the committeeThe committee is also miffed since it has not received any official communication from any authority yet It claims to have written several letters to the district administration CIDCO and Zilla Parishad in the matter and is planning a protest soonCommissioner speakWhen asked about the health concerns of the villagers Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta hinting at scientific processing of waste said ldquoWe have made it amply clear that there will be no more just dumping at the new grounds In that case fire will no longer be a threat as it is to Deonar In fact once processing of waste starts it will create jobs for villagers We will definitely take the local population into considerationrdquoOfficial speakldquoThe land for the dumping ground has been handed over to us but it has encroachment The collectorrsquos office will first have to clear that We have invited bids for a compound wall there and a board will be put uprdquo said deputy municipal commissioner of BMC Vijay BalamwarThane Collector Ashwini Joshi said ldquoThere is encroachment by about 48 families on the land If they are eligible they will be rehabilitatedrdquo As for the biomedical waste she said that the plant is at a distance and is monitored by Maharashtra Pollution Control Board MPCBManisha Mhaiskar principal secretary urban development said ldquoThe chief minister has made it very clear that henceforth there will only be scientific processing of waste The BMC has been given the land subject to the condition that only scientific processing will be undertaken Therefore the villagers have no reason to worry aboutrdquo When asked whether this will be conveyed to the villagers who are threatening a protest she said that the BMC will have to do it