IT hub now a discarded city

Air pollution overtopping surviving level at Bangaluru

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Jan 23: Known as one of the education and IT hubs in the country, Banglaluru is now a discarded metropolitan city in the country. Apart from other states of the country, a large number of students and others from the Northeast had to leave Bangaluru because of air pollution overtopping human surviving level.

A pollution control board official from Bangaluru said: “The IT city has now turned into a risk zone for people with bronchial problems, asthama, aged people having breathing problems and children under ten years of age with weak lungs. The pollution level in the city has gone up much higher, beyond the limit.”

According to official sources, Kartaka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) ‘PM 10 and PM 2.5 have exceeded tiol standards 60 ug/m3 (microgram/cubic metre) in almost in all locations where ambient air quality stations are located’. “The KSPCB is monitoring ambient air quality in Bangaluru city at 16 locations as per guidelines covering industrial, residential, rural etc areas,” the official said, and added: “The density of vehicles is rising in the city routes fast, aggravating the situation. Construction activities are the main cause of the high air pollution in the city. Old vehicles have been banned in the city.” Ajit Baruah, a businessman from Assam well-settled in Bangaluru said: “The pollution level in Bangaluru is so high that it is simply not possible go out. The city has become too dusty. Students, aged persons and children have been in a very bad environment there. People from other States simply cannot survive there.”

A student from Assam who is doing fil year chartered account course in Bangaluru said: “I’m reluctant to go to Bangaluru again. I face breathing problem there. Sometimes I even feel pain in the chest. I have no way out to come to Guwahati, leaving my studies aside. Most of the students from the Northeast go to Bangaluru for studies. If no tangible action to get the problem solved is taken by the authority there, many people, mostly students, will have to suffer irreparable loss. To earn knowledge one simply cannot come back earning lung diseases.”