PPCB team fails to lift samples from court complex

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 13

A team of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) today failed to take any samples from the record room located underground in the district court complex to check the air quality.

An advocate and RTI activist, Prabodh Chander Bali, had written to the PPCB to check quality of air as employees posted in the record room complained of respiratory ailments. There is no cross ventilation in the underground complex.

An official of the PPCB said a Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) had refused to let them collect air sample citing the reason that the matter had already been taken up with the building committee of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for construction of new record room. The CJM further stated that PPCB officials would have to take permission from the High Court for collecting air samples.

The Public Works Department had also been asked to identify a place where the new record room could be constructed, added the CJM.

Bali said in September last year he went to the general record room for some official work located on underground floor of the main court complex. He said, “I was immediately infected with allergen particles. Employees were also wearing air masks when I visited in the room. They told me that the people usually get infected due to poor air quality as there is no cross ventilation.”

“Clean air is one of the basic requirements of the human health and well being,” he added.

Bali said the record room was unsafe, besides prone to mites and worms. In a letter written to the District and Sessions Judge, he urged him to shift the record room to any other floor where there was direct sunlight and air circulation, which would also help in keeping the record safe.