process and thus hampering photosynthesis he told toibhoyar further says that if the electrostatic precipitators esps function properly then the emissions should go down by 9999 if esps are not functioning properly then mahagenco authorities should take immediate remedial steps he addedbhoyar rued that even though mahagencos predecessor mseb had been told that use of wet flyash was good for agriculture no steps had been taken by the authoritiescrop damage can be seen but the bigger damage is to the health which is not fully visible right now my motherinlaw is suffering from asthma since last few years and my son repeatedly suffers from cough and cold five months ago an old woman in our village died of an asthma attack says kautarerespiratory problems and other health ailments have been haunting the villagers since last many years toi visited five villages within 10km of ktps where residents complained of health problems due to air pollution surprisingly none of these mostaffected villages are chosen for air quality monitoring by mpcb or mahagenco the list of villages where monitoring was done was provided to toi by mpcbdr gyaneshwar dhanole a medical practitioner in mahadula another village close to ktps concurs with the villagers respiratory ailments are common in the area those who fall prey to them are unable to recuperate completely while in other places kids get viral fever mostly when season changes however here they suffer from it all the year round he sayseven a village like bailwada which is some 10km from the plant suffers from ktps pollution our crop yield has reduced by 20 due to flyash asthma is a common problem every morning we find our utensils vehicles in fact everything covered with a thick layer of dry ash says resident rishi dakhorewhile mahagenco claims that it holds health camps in the affected villages residents said that the company had held an eye checkup camp they have never held a camp for overall health was the common refrain of residents of the villages toi visiteddr sanjay jaiswal deputy director of health nagpur says that no health camps are held we have primary health centres phcs in villages where people can go for treatment he adds however most villagers prefer to go to private hospitals in koradi and nagpur as phcs do not give prompt servicein an earlier clarification sent to toi mahagenco had denied illeffects of air pollution on the ground that there was no such data with the phcs since no camps were held there is no data tooif crop damage and air pollution was not enough ktps is also polluting drinking water in many villages mahagenco releases water through a canal near our village sometimes oil flows with water and pollutes our groundwater when we complain the officials just take perfunctory steps to solve the problem says maharoti bhange from ghoglia toi photographer attempted to drink the well water but was unable to do so because of the atrocious tastebhoyar says if the esps dont work