Clinker has turned out to be a major cause of respiratory disorder for residents of this India-Nepal border town.

The stony residue from burnt coal or from a furnace consists of inferior limestone that contains rich volume of silicon dioxide, which is very harmful for lungs.

Clinker is used as raw material in cement-manufacturing units and the dust-like component is stored in Raxaul, around 210km north of Patna. The clinker is usually transported from Madhya Pradesh, which is supplied to nearly two dozen cement factories in Nepal.

Confirming the adverse impact of clinker on human body, physician Mahendra Singh said he knew at least two of his patients Ashok Bajaj (57) and Dhruv Prasad (50) who died of lung cancer because of infection caused by clinker dust that fills the Raxaul air.

The Duncan Hospital, a Christian missionary-run health facility, in its report submitted to the local administration confirmed the impact of the raw material on human health.

The report stated that more than half of Raxaul's population was suffering from different kinds of lung and eye diseases caused by clinker. The population of the sub-divisional town of East Champaran district is around 1.25 lakh.

Another doctor in the town Prashant Kumar said the harmful clinker dust gets mixed in the air at the time of unloading and loading of the raw material.

The unloading is done when the raw material reaches the town by train from the mines of Madhya Pradesh. This raw material is then loaded in vehicles heading to the cement factories in Nepal.

Alarmed over the impact of this stony material on human health, Raxaul resident Mahesh Agrawal filed a writ petition in Patna High Court seeking its intervention on the issue. The matter, said Agrawal's counsel Gautam Keriwal, has not yet been listed for hearing in the court.

The petitioner has made railway officials as well as those from the state pollution control board party in the case.

Throwing light on the problem, college teacher Anil Sinha, who has been actively raising issues concerning residents of Raxaul, said the situation was not that alarming around 15 years back when the clinker dumped near Raxaul railway station was transported to Nepal within 24 hours but things deteriorated and at present the stock remains dumped outside the Raxaul railway station at least for a week after its arrival.

Railway sources said more than 60 rakes of clinker reach Raxaul every month and the raw material is stored in the open near the railway station.

Though railways has assured corrective steps to make the town free of the problems caused by clinker dust, till date nothing substantial has been done to fulfil the promise.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu, in a letter sent to local MP Sanjay Jaiswal, who had drawn the attention of the problem in June this year, had made the promise.

Concerned over the failure of the railway ministry teacher Sinha said residents will resort to agitation to draw the attention of authorities towards the problem which was taking a toll on the health of the residents.