chandigarh the students of schools and polytechnics near panipat thermal power station ptps breathe polluted air while the local villagers suffer skin eye and respiratory ailments this is what a joint committee has submitted in its supplementary report to the national green tribunal ngtthe report claims no improvement in the situation from what is mentioned in the case residents of gram panchayat jatal versus the state of haryana on the issue of air water and ground pollution caused by the ptps the issue is pending before the ngt since 2019 and the bench has constituted a joint committee of officials from the central and state pollution control boards haryana government and local administration to monitor and assess the situation from time to timethe committee mentioned in its report submitted to the ngt on monday that it had collected airquality samples from five places which include a private school a government school a sanskriti school a polytechnic and a ptps guest house a few readings were within the parameters but the respirate particulate matter pm10 level was between 330 and 397 micro grams in each cubic metre against the environment ministrys norms of 100 ugm3the fine particulate matter pm25 level was 109 to 177 ugm3 again in the harmful range while were sulphur and other toxic gases as well in the air at the time of inspection nickel was beyond the permissible limit at four out of five places there groundwater and soil were also polluted affecting the growth and health of crops in the soil had a dangerous level of chromium copper zinc and nickel content chromium and copper had the maximum concentrationchromium was between 139 and 175 mgkg at all the five locations against world health organisations safety limit of 100 mgkg copper was between 36 and 49 mgkg which is harmful while zinc was between 59 and 73 mgkg against the safe limit of 50 mgkgpanipat environmentalist amit rathee said the civil surgeons report is based on random inspection since the villagers dont get medical treatment the actual public health report could be worse the locals know that the ptps has no antipollution system the civil surgeon reports respiratory infection in 91 villagers skin disease in 44 eye ailment in 42 and cancer in 32 besides seven cancer deaths in five villages over five years