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| Though this country is a member of the Basel Convention dealing with this subject, and there are a number of rules on paper, the implementation of the regulations is half-hearted or tainted with corruption at several levels. |
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| Therefore, it has become the constitutional obligation of the Supreme Court to deal with this problem too, apart from several other public interest issues, and protect the unwary citizens from chemical contamination. The court devoted several weeks recently to deal with the problems serially and pass orders in Research Foundation vs Union of India. |
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| The court has been passing orders in this case since 1995. However, it found that the statements filed by the ministry of environment and forests, the Central Pollution Control Board and other concerned authorities showed that proper attention has not been paid by them in enforcing the Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 1989. |
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| The problem, it said, is not as much of absence of the rules as its implementation. Moreover, the ministry has not even gathered the relevant data all this while. |
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| At one stage, it stated that the total quantity of hazardous wastes generated within the country was 0.7 million tonnes. Later it was revised to 4.4 million. |
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| Apart from the ministry of environment, the ministries of finance, commerce and labour should also be involved in the task of disposal of the wastes, the court said. |
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| Several Acts like the Customs Act, the Major Port Trust Act and the Foreign Trade Development Act cover this field. Therefore, there should have been a comprehensive study of all the aspects involved. |
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| In fact, there has been little coordination between the agencies that are responsible for tackling the disposal of wastes. The states have also been found wanting in their effort. |
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| More than 80 per cent of the chemical wastes is generated by Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. But these governments and their respective state pollution control boards have been laggard in tackling the danger. |
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Ultimately, the court virtually took over the executive
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