Rourkela: A joint team of officials, led by Panposh sub-collector Himansu Sekhar Behera, took stock of the pollution control measures at two sponge iron units at Kuanrmunda village.

Sundargarh collector Binit Bharadwaj formed the team following a meeting with local residents. It also has the Odisha State Pollution Control Board's regional officer Hemendra Narayana Nayak, Panposh ITDA PA T. Bari and Kuanrmunda tehsildar Dilip Kumar Nayak. The team, which will conduct spot verification of all the six plants here, visited two units - Swastik Iron and Ma Sakambari Sponge.

"We will visit the plants during the next four to five days," said Nayak.

He said: "We have thoroughly checked the premises of both the units."

Behera said: "We looked into the pollution control measures - the dust, air and water pollution aspects of the units. We also inspected the electro static precipitator and the internal open sources of pollution in the plant. We will give the final report to the collector. The situation in the erring units improved after allegations had risen against them."

Swastik Iron promoter Rajesh Bagaria said: "They had inspected my unit over four hours."

Bagaria said he had taken care of the pollution control measures.

Kuanrmunda residents complained against pollution caused by the units. The Kuanrmunda Nagarika Committee observed a Kuanrmunda strike in February, resulting in the economic blockade to the erring units.