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HC nod to MP govt plan for three-phase trial run for Union Carbide waste disposal
The state informed the court that the first phase of the trial run will take place on February 27 and the second and third phase on March 4 and March 10 respectively
The Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, on Tuesday approved the state government’s plan of a three-phase trial run of a total of 30 tonnes of toxic waste from the Union Carbide factory, and studying the results before incinerating the remaining waste.
The state government submitted a compliance report to the court on Tuesday, a day after Supreme Court admitted a petition filed against the disposal of toxic waste in Pithampur and sent notices to the Union and state governments.
The bench of Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain approved the trial run, said Prashant Singh, the state’s advocate general. The state’s plan is to incinerate the waste at different temperatures and different rates in the three trials and send the results to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to analyse. Based on the board’s recommendations, the state said it would decide on the interval, temperature and quantity of disposal .
The state informed the court that the first phase of the trial run will take place on February 27 and the second and third phase on March 4 and March 10 respectively. The final report as received from the CPCB will be presented before the High Court on March 27, said Singh.
The state started unloading the 337 tonnes of toxic waste in Pithampur, Dhar district on February 13, 42 days after it was transferred from Bhopal for incineration.
During a hearing on January 6, the court gate the state six weeks to dispose the toxic waste , ensuring that all safety guidelines were met, and after taking into confidence the people of Pithampur, some of whom were staging protests.
Since then, the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board, the district administrationand officials of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation department officials have heldaround 100 meetings in Dhar and Indore.
The toxic waste has been lying abandoned in the defunct factory for the past 40 years after the leakage of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) at UCIL on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984 claimed 3,928 lives, according to official data submitted to the Supreme Court, and impacted the health of at least four generations of people who were exposed to the gas.
The state government claimed before the court that people are now satisfied that the disposal process is safe and that only a few continue to protest.
However, Pithmapur Bachao Samiti members are continued to stage protest and hoping that the Supreme Court will stay the disposal.
