Chandigarh, March 26
After experts from country’s top cancer facility Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, blamed poor lifestyle, and not uranium or overuse of pesticides and fertilisers, for cancer deaths in the Malwa belt of Punjab, a former engineer from ONGC has termed the studies a farce.
“Uranium is present in the soil and water of the region, which has led to several deaths due to cancer. No scientist from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has ever visited Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant in Bathinda to collect samples and no study has been conducted on it so far,” said 81-year-old Iqbal Singh Kalsi, former project manager, ONGC.
He claimed the feed stock coal and slurry of the plant had been discharging around 15-kg radioactive uranium daily since 1977. — TNS