State government has said it will not allow Dow Chemicals, the company which has acquired Union Carbide, allegedly responsible for world’s worst ever chemical disaster in Bhopal, to clean up the toxic waste present in the closed unit of Union Carbide. It has also said that it will open the premises permanently for public from January.
On December 2 in 1984 lethal mythyleisocynate leaked from the Union Carbide’s Bhopal plant and claimed hundreds of lives and leaving thousands suffering till today. Company chairperson Warren Anderson is absconding since then. The premises of the factory has more than 350 tonnes of toxic waste. Survivors of the tragedy and various NGOs have a long pending demand to fix responsibility of cleaning the premises on Dow.
“We will not allow Dow to even enter the factory premises. Ours is an elected government of 6.5 million people,” Babulal Gaur, Bhopal gas relief and rehabilitation minister told BS adding,
“The toxic waste is lying for years and the toxicity, if there was any, have been washed away during the last so many years. A court case is pending and we had decided to incinerate it at Ankleshwar (Gujarat), at first the Gujarat government agreed but later refused to accept it. We will follow the Supreme Court instructions and will do accordingly,” he said.
The state government has already disposed of 40 tonnes of lime sludge at Pithampur hazardous waste site and a case is pending in the Supreme Court for removal and disposal of the toxic present in the premise.
“Had he summoned up his courage against the company, the toxic waste would not have been lying there for years. He was an advocate of Union Carbide in 1982, he cannot speak against them and makes this kind of statement to appease the successor (Dow) now ,” Rasheeda Bi, managing trustee of Chingari Trust (an NGO fighting for survivors’ right) expressed his anger. Rasheeda Bi is a Goldman Environmental prize winner who has ignited the international campaign to seek justice for the disaster survivors.
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Satinath Sarangi, who is also actively working for survivors for the last 25 years reacted, “Dow is responsible and the minister is also responsible to making Dow pay for clean up. It is his 180-degree turn from his earlier statement to make Dow pay for clean up.”
Recently the NGOs and survivors have expressed their anger over government’s announcement to open the premises for the public. Later, the government took a U-turn in view of the elections and said, “We will open the premises in January forever. We will open it for public from January as civic body elections are nearing. We will open it forever as we have High Court permission in this regard.”