December 1, 1998: A leak in the sulphuric acid plant of Dharamsee Morarjee Chemicals, Ambernath (which manufactures around 800 tonnes of sulphuric acid daily) allegedly due to an open manhole creates a scare as thousands of residents are affected. Two schools in the neighbourhood send children home after they complain of nausea and inflammation of eyes, nose and throat. Whileresidents panic, the company claims it's a false alarm. Both MPCB and DISH are quiet on the issue.

December 14, 1998: 200 persons are affected due to a gas leak in National Rayon Company, Ambivili. The company says local politicians are playing up the issue and the actual affected are only five. Kulkarni again raises the bogey of investigations and claims he doesn't have the relevant papers, when asked to comment on the earlier accidents.

December 23, 1998: A fire in the sulphur pulverising unit S B Chemicals sets nearly 1.4 tonnes of sulphur ablaze. It takes five fire engines over six hours to fight the fires, which release lethal sulphur trioxide in the atmosphere, sending the densely populated slum population of Chakki Naka in Kalyan (east) scurrying for cover. Alerted by the morning newspapers, the MPCB officials visit the plant only the next day at 9.30 am, when everything has cooled down, while DISH officials do not turn up at all!

THE aforementioned industrial accidents in the Dombivli-Ambernathindustrial belt have brought into sharp focus the gross negligence of the industrial managements, the Pollution Board and DISH officials and underlined the threat posed by dangerous pollutants to locals.

Local residents are already sore over the fact that government finds their lives so expendable. ``This is the gratitude we're getting for contributing toward decongesting Mumbai by staying in suburbs,'' says Balan K, a resident of Dombivli's MIDC Colony. The colony has the highest incidence of respiratory diseases. Children are probably the worst affected. ``The still fragile systems in a child's body go haywire due to exposure to pollutants,'' points out Dr Ulhas Kolhatkar, a practising paediatrican from Dombivli. He adds: ``It's amazing to note how most kids with repeated complaints of sickness end up feeling healthy during the small breaks they have away from Dombivli during vacations at their native places.'' But both MPCB and DISH brush aside charges of negligence. MPCB regional officer R Kulkarnicomplained, ``While the media has been more than generous in pointing out my shortcomings, nobody bothers about the fact that we were functioning without any staff or office space till May 1998.''

Lauding efforts of his field officers who ``conduct routine checks at least once in two months,'' he said he is still understaffed and ill-equipped. ``Of the seven pollution-monitoring vans in the state, there is only one available for Thane and Kalyan,'' he informed, adding, ``It too has problems in standardising, and we are working to get it operational at the earliest.'' He said disregard for long-term planning in location policy had contributed greatly to the problem. ``What was once an essentially industrial area is now being increasingly opened up for residential complexes,'' he comments and trails off hesitantly.

He also suggests none of the above cases were directly of pollution. ``Everywhere some problem with gadgetry or a technical fault are to blame,'' he points out, adding, ``The resultant pollutionwas merely a fall-out, which is entirely DISH's lookout.'' He cites the instance of S B Chemicals to support his stance. ``If the unit were to flout pollution control norms by not providing bags to collect the fine sulphur dust as required, it would amount to a loss as tonnes of sulphur would be blown off,'' he explains and adds, ``at least to avoid huge losses the owner will be forced to use cloth bags.'' He asks: ``How can MPCB be answerable if the grinder is faulty and sparks from it lead to the fire?''

The DISH director G R Gujar pooh-poohs the cases cited, ``as nothing major had happened.'' Asked whether the admission of young children into ICUs was not serious, he rationalised, ``Since there has been no impairment or anything (sic) we cannot say it is a serious case.'' Scoffing at the allegations of corruption being thrown around, he says: ``Such allegations were made even after the Bhopal gas tragedy, but nothing came of them.''