Union Carbide waste disposal: HC grants six weeks to MP govt, to hear case on Feb 18

Bhopal, Jan 6 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh High Court on Monday granted six weeks to the state government to act on the Union Carbide factory waste disposal as per the safety guidelines and set February 18 as the next date of hearing.

The state government submitted the status report on the matter and also informed about the protests.

During the hearing, a petitioner while objecting to the disposal of the Bhopal gas tragedy's hazardous waste, told the court that the state government had transported chemical waste without consulting the residents of the Pithampur industrial area.

Advocate Abhinav Dhanotkar, who represented the petitioner (a group of doctors of MGM College Indore), contented that the Pithampur industrial area, where the toxic waste is supposed to be incinerated, is more than 35 km from the state's biggest city Indore. He argued that hazardous waste has a long-lasting impact.

Meanwhile, after submitting a detailed status report on the collection of waste, transportation and agitation in Pithampur, the state government urged the Court to provide six weeks for incineration of toxic waste.

The bench of Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain said that concerns raised by other parties, including, MGM doctors, would also be listened. The division bench granted time to the state government after Advocate General Prashant Singh sought more time.

The move to dispose of 337 tons of Union Carbide waste at Pithampur, about 250 km from the state capital, has triggered protests. There have been two self-immolation bids also.

During the last hearing on December 3, 2024, the HC pulled up the authorities for failing to dispose of the waste at the now-defunct factory in Bhopal. Even 40 years after the gas disaster, the authorities are in a “state of inertia” that may cause another disaster, the court mentioned.

The high court had asked the government to remove and transport the waste from the site within four weeks and warned of contempt proceedings if the directive was not acted upon.

The HC direction had come on a writ petition filed in 2004 for the disposal of waste from the Union Carbide plant, which had triggered one of the world’s worst industrial disasters.

Before the waste, packed in sealed containers, reached Dhar district on Thursday and the ensuing protests there, Swatantra Kumar Singh, director of the state's Gas Relief and Rehabilitation Department, had said, that if everything is found to be fine, then the waste will be burnt to ashes within three months.

On the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, killing at least 5,479 persons and leaving thousands with serious injuries and long-lasting health issues.

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