The Madhya Pradesh High Court Tuesday directed the state government to initiate the process of disposal of 350 metric tons toxic waste lying at the Union Carbide factory here in Bhopal.
The division bench comprising of Justice Sushil Harkauli and Justice UC Maheshwari directed the state government to initiate and complete the process for packaging of the toxic waste within ten days. The bench further directed that the packaged toxic waste should be transported to Nagpur based Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) and the government need not wait till finalisation of tender process.
The High Court order has ensured that the responsibility for disposal would now be shared by both the central and state governments.
During the hearing, the central government filed an affidavit stating that the DRDO Nagpur has the capability to incinerate half to one metric tons of toxic wastage per day due to which the whole process of disposal will take a period of two years.
The Court has allotted a 60 days period for inviting tenders and completion of the transportation process. The court further directed the state government and DRDO to show the compliance report to the Court order in ten days.
On July 27 last, the central government had filed an affidavit stating that the toxic wastage will be transported and incinerated at DRDO Nagpur. As per the affidavit, the scientists at DRDO had projected a period of two years for disposing the toxic waste, which has been lying at Ankaleshwar, since the incident of Bhopal Gas Tragedy took place.
Additional Advocate General Naman Nagrath and advocate KN Fakhruddin appeared on behalf of the petitioner. Deputy Advocate General Vijay Pandey appeared for state government. The central government was represented by Shekhar Sharma. Senior counsel Kishore Shrivastava appeared for Dow Chemicals.
Alok Pratap Singh, the petitioner had in his petition sought the Court direction against Central Government, Dow Chemical factory, and Union Carbide of India to take the responsibility for disposing the toxic wastage from Bhopal at Ankleshwar.
The matter is listed for further hearing on July 28.
Source: Law et al. news
