News from the world of NGOs

Carbide's garbage
Bhopal Group of Information and Action (BGIA), an NGO, has opposed the controversial move of the Madhya Pradesh government to dump the toxic chemical waste of Union Carbide in either a land fill site in Indore or an incinerator in Ankeswar in Gujarat.

The NGO, which is an intervenor in a petition filed on the Union Carbide disaster in the Madhya Pradesh High Court says that both options are fraught with danger besides letting Union Carbide get away without owning responsibility for the disposal of its garbage.

A road map on disposal has been filed in the court, said Rachna Dhingra member of the BGIA which had earlier through Right to Information exposed a government plan to let Dow Chemicals the successors of Carbide to continue activities without paying the cost of the Carbide cleanup.

Films on livelihood
What does it take to earn two square meals a day? Some of us brethrens dance in bars, some sell vegetables....A documentary film festival would showcase the struggle people go through to make a living.

The NGO Centre for Civil Society (CCS) is organising a Jeevika South Asia documentary film festival starting today in the capital. The documentary is being held for the fourth consecutive year.

It has attracted 128 entries this year from all parts of the world including 42 entries from students in India, all focusing on livelihood in South Asia. Nidhi Chaddha,a senior official in CCS said that the screenings would be exchanged between six Indian cities linked through the festival.

King Khan's wild aid
Movie star Shah Rukh Khan has signed up for a new role. He will soon be seen campaigning for wildlife conservation.

He will star in a national awareness campaign being prepared by Sanskara Development Trust, along with the Asian Conservation Awareness Programme: WildAid.

Khan will be seen introducing the struggle of a forest guard and familiarising the viewers to the issues faced in conservation. The multi-media campaign aims to protect the future of the world's endangered wildlife by drastically reducing consumer demand for endangered species parts and products.

With the support of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the campaign will run on leading television networks like Doordarshan, NationalGeographic,Discovery/Animal Planet, CNN IBN, NDTV, India TV, among others.