Dear Editor,
A gas leak in the crowded Giaspura neighbourhood of the industrial city of Ludhiana has tragically claimed 11 lives, including those of children, and sent several people to the hospital. The state investigation team not yet determined what the gas was or how it formed, but all indications point to it escaping from a sewer. The modernization of India’s economy, as well as the expansion of manufacturing, must be accompanied by more effective regulation. New mechanisms for monitoring and surveillance that utilise cheap and readily available data connections and other technological advances need to be piloted and evaluated. The government cannot long postpone a reckoning when it comes to regulating toxic pollution.
VijayKumar H K
[email protected]
Raichur, Karnataka
Environmentalist
