8 held for dumping waste in manholes

AHMEDABAD : Special Operation Group (SOG) of Ahmedabad district police on Sunday evening arrested eight persons for dumping suspected industrial waste into open manholes near Moraiya village of Ahmedabad district and Narmada canal near Vishalpur village.

A woman worker Neelam Parmar had died on Saturday while three others had to be rushed to a hospital following a gas leak incident in Danilimda.“Omkar Intermediates, a company located on sewerage farm road in Danilimda, had dumped toxic waste into a manhole. That resulted in poisonous gas seeping through the pipeline to an adjoining company which killed Parmar,“ said inspector M K Rana of Danilimda police station.

Superintendent of police (Ahmedabad district) Nirlipt Rai said that police have sent the samples collected from eight tankers seized from the spot to the forensic science laboratory to verify whether the dumped material contained toxic waste.

Sub-inspector of police, SOG (rural), B B Goyal, said that police raided two spots near Moraiya village and near Vishalpur village following a tip-off and seized eight tankers for dumping suspected industrial waste. “The tankers had carried the suspected industrial waste from Astron company , Bajaj Herbal and Vimal packaging, all located near Moraiya village,“ added Goyal.

SOG sources said those ar rested are Rana Chunara, Mohit Joshi and Vishnu Chakrai from Sanand, Raju Laxman, Girish Babu from Dholka, Khodidas Ramnik from Sarkhej, Jeetu Devipujak from Moraiya and Chandu Vaghela from Ahmedabad.

Police had also called officials of Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) for examination of the effluent samples.Locals alleged that it is only after an accident that the cops and the GPCB officials wake up and conduct raids. “If the administration does its work properly , such incidents do not happen,“ said a local resident.

Case lodged against factory owner

Danilimda police on Monday registered an offence against the owner of Omkar Intermediates Dilip Sutaria, a resident of Naroda under Section 304 (Part-2) of the IPC in the death case of a woman worker, Neelam Parmar, who died due to gas leak.Toxic waste from Omkar Intermediates was dumped into the manhole. Police also clubbed the case of death of another worker of the unit, Motiram Zamudkar, who had fallen to death in the factory at the time of gas leak.