The agitation, led by the BJP’s Devji Bhai Patel has gained momentum, creating fissures within the ruling party. Patel’s supporters began their agitation by protesting in front of the residences of industrialists. Some of those agitating were office bearers of the BJP. The protesters resorted to beating drums and presenting packets of “black dust” to the industrialists’ family, to draw attention to the issue.

For their part, the industrialists along with a few ruling party leaders had complained to the Chief Minister about Patel’s supporters. They later lodged a complaint with the police alleging damage to their property and inconvenience to their family.

Patel is now carrying out a campaign in the villages of Dharsiva block. He is trying to obtain signatures on a memorandum to be submitted in the state legislative Assembly and to the Chief Justice of India.

“Is it not my duty to raise a voice against pollution, a major problem of Dharsiva assembly constituency from where the people elected me twice?” asks Patel, dismissing criticism that the agitation was prompted by internal rivalry within the BJP. “We are not in favour of closing down polluting units. But there has to be some mechanism to ensure strict enforcement of pollution control norms”, he added.

Patel said there has to be a regulatory mechanism to control dumping of black industrial dust in the villages, as this was affecting the paddy crop.

Pointing out that the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NERI) had found high levels of air pollution in and around the industrial areas, he added that the organisation had also said that though electrostatic precipitators (ESP) were installed in almost all plants with capacity of 100 tones per day (TPD), they did not have separate electric meters to ascertain whether these were functional.

However, Siltara Sponge Iron Units Association president Anil Nachrani said,”as compared to previous years, the situation has improved with almost all industrial units having capacity of 100 TPD installing Electrostatic precipitators (ESP). Plants with lesser capacity are not required to have ESP as per the rules”.

Governor E S L Narasimhan has been monitoring the problem for over a year and his visit to Siltara industrial area found non-functional pollution control equipment. As the agitation continues, Chief Minister Raman Singh has also decided to convene a meeting of the agitators and industrialists to find a solution to the problem.