MP High Court might take up Union Carbide waste disposal petition on Monday

Bhopal: All eyes are set on the Madhya Pradesh High Court which on Monday is expected to hear the matter concerning the Union Carbide waste sent from Bhopal to Dhar district for disposal.

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

According to the website of the MP High Court on Sunday, the matter has been listed for hearing by the division bench of Chief Justice SK Kait and Justice Vivek Jain on January 6 (Monday).

During the last hearing on December 3, the HC had pulled up the authorities for failing to dispose of the waste lying 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 tragedy”, it had said.

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.

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.

Two days ago, two men tried to immolate themselves during a protest against the planned disposal of the Carbide material at Pithampur, about 30 km from Indore. The protesters claim the disposal would be harmful to humans and the environment.

Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and Chief Secretary Anurag Jain have told reporters that the government would seek more time from the HC for the disposal of the waste in the wake of the protests.

Both have also assured that the public would be taken into confidence before the waste disposal.

Senior advocate Naman Nagrath, representing the petitioner late Alok Pratap Singh, told PTI, “In view of the widespread agitation, the general public should be taken into confidence and for that the waste may be tested to determine its current level of toxicity.” “Thereafter the test report should be made public so that the people are satisfied that it won't create any sort of disaster. I feel that there is no toxicity left in the waste. After 40 years, the toxicity might have died down or reduced to a great extent and it might not create health hazards at all,” he added.

ND Jayaprakash, co-convener of ‘Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsha Sahayog Samiti’, an intervener in the writ petition tied to the waste disposal, told PTI that he would make submissions in the court in Jabalpur on Monday.

“We have already filed an application seeking a meeting of all parties concerned including representatives of Bhopal gas leak victims and representatives of residents near Pithampur," he said.

The MP High Court had in 2009 passed directives to incinerate the toxic waste in Gujarat or Maharashtra, said Jayaprakash. But after the two states objected, the Supreme Court stayed the directives, he added.

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, “If everything is found to be fine, then the waste will be burnt to ashes within three months.

"Otherwise, the speed of burning will be slowed down and it might take up to nine months.”