MP High Court Directs Govt to Find New Site for Bhopal Gas Tragedy Remains
The court has however raised its apprehension about the site chosen by the state government since it is close to human habitation
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh high court has directed the state government to explore an alternative site to dispose of the incinerated remains of the Bhopal gas tragedy, providing broad hints that it cannot rely on the MP administration’s choice of the spot for the disposal of the toxic waste.
“However, in times when new roads are washed away in rains, and bridges collapse, and, worse still, when railway overbridges are constructed with a right-angle turn, reducing this state to a laughingstock nationwide, reposing unflinching faith in the engineering prowess of the state may be an invitation to disaster”, a division bench of the high court comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Pradeep Mittal observed.
The court’s observation came after the state government overlooked a direction by it to identify alternative locations for disposal of the incinerated remains of the Bhopal gas tragedy, contending that a state-of-art process is being adopted for the purpose.
The court has however raised its apprehension about the site chosen by the state government since it is close to human habitation.
“Earlier also, this court had voiced apprehension of containing the residual waste proximate to human habitation, as the residual waste is still toxic in nature”, the court remarked.
The court said that any breach of the containment structure due to natural disasters like earthquakes would be ‘another disaster in waiting’.
The court’s apprehension was corroborated by the tests conducted by the Madhya Pradesh pollution Control Board (MPPCB) which cited mercury levels in the ash of the Bhopal gas tragedy waste as higher than permissible limits.
The court said that its remarks should not be seen as mockery but as a caution, terming its approach as ‘once bitten twice shy’.
The Union Carbide factory in Bhopal was safe till the disaster struck, claiming in an instant nearly 20,000 lives and leaving five hundred thousand others to suffer from respiratory and vision problems for the rest of their lives, the court noted.
The remains of the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984, caused by the leakage of the deadly methyl isocyanate in the now-closed Union Carbide plant, were shifted to the incinerate facility in Pithampur in Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh in January this year and burnt to ashes.
The state government has identified a site in Pithampur to dispose of the ashes.