« July 2005 | Main | September 2005 »

August 23, 2005

More tamaasha about the IOC plant in Panipat

The contract for the Indian Oil Corporation's MEG plant in Panipat continues to generate heat and light. The letter of intent issued to US Multinational Dow Chemical was cancelled because of Dow's ownership Union Carbide, the company responsible for the Bhopal gas tragedy. Dow was trying to sell the IOC a Union Carbide patented technology but had lied about the process in its submission.

The contract has now been given to another US company Scientific Design. This has ignited a protest from the consortium of Petron Scientech Inc, Engineers India Ltd and CRI International Inc (a subsidiary of Shell). The consortium protests that it had offered the "most economical and competitive process" for the MEG plant and claims that had IOC adopted its technology, it would have ended up saving Rs 80-90 crore every year. The IOC says that the consortium was disqualified on grounds of inadequate experience.

We suggest that all the tenders should be publicly re-examined by independent experts and that those who originally chose Dow and now Scientific Design should have their motives and bank accounts subjected to the minutest scrutiny.

Posted by bhola at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)

Trash Culture - A study of Garbage and Youth Culture: Report from Cuddalore now available here

Find it in our ALLIES section or just click here.

Posted by bhola at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2005

Chief Minister Gaur promises help to women who tied "rakhis" on his wrist and asked for his brotherly protection

Last week in Bhopal 300 women from neighbourhoods whose drinking water is contaminated by chemicals leaking from Union Carbide's derelict factory went to the Chief Minister's house and tied rakhis on his wrist.

A rakhi is a tinsel bracelet tied by women on the wrists of their brothers to ask their protection. The mottos on the bracelets read simply, 'Save us sisters from poisoned water'.

The deeply traditional plea touched Chief Minister Gaur's heart for he immediately called a meeting, scheduled for the very next day, of top officials and ordered that clean water be supplied to the 16 communities which have been forced to drink and bathe in dilute poisons for years.

The Chief Minister said that the state would bear the cost of piping in the clean water. The cost, estimated to run to 9 crores of rupees (more than $2,000,000 US) will be among the monies sought to be recovered from Union Carbide. It is a fleabite compared to the cost of cleaning up the factory and remediating the contaminated soil and groundwater. Union Carbide and its 100% owners Dow Chemical meanwhile refuse to accept responsibility for the chaos and suffering they have caused and continue to abscond from criminal proceedings in Bhopal.

For the survivors, who have heard many promises over the years, but are not used to being kindly received by those in authority, the Chief Minister's promise of clean water soon is a cause for hope. We look forward to the day the pipelines start to flow.

Posted by bhola at 07:20 PM | Comments (0)

August 21, 2005

After the years of poisoning, the boots, fists and sticks, at last a promise of clean water

BHOPAL.NET OPINION

Sanno, beaten by police when she and others dared to ask for clean drinking water.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Babu Lal Gaur and his officials have promised clean safe drinking water "very soon" to the people whose drinking supplies have for so many years been poisoned by Union Carbide's derelict factory. We welcome this news, but cannot help wondering, why has it taken so long?

Nearly 18 months have passed since the Indian Supreme Court ordered safe water to be supplied to those who needed it. The order appeared to have been ignored. After a year of inaction, women and children from the affected areas went in a group to a government office to ask why nothing had been done. The only answer they got was from police sticks and boots. Not long afterwards the Chief Minister was quoted in the press as saying that he would beautify the state's major cities with gymnasia, badminton courts and public fountains. Somewhere along the line things appear to have slipped into perspective, because the promises made at last week's meeting appear to be sincere. (See Press Releases) The Chief Minister instructed the Minister responsible for the welfare of Carbide's victims to supply the water, the Minister in turn complained of the quality of such supplies as are currently being provided and ordered the Mayor of the city to switch to a different source. The government will pick up the bill. We are encouraged by this new positive attitude and hope it will continue for there remain many other issues to be solved.

Much attention has recently been focused on the factory and the piles of lethal chemicals that remain there, causing the groundwater contamination that has been slowly poisoning some 20,000 people, many of whom were already suffering from the effect of Carbide's 1984 chemical holocaust. The issue of clean water is clearly linked to the need for the factory site to be cleaned up. Here too, survivors found themselves in confrontation with local officials who had begun a hasty and incompetent "clean-up" in response to an order from the High Court in Jabalpur where a case had been lodged widely believed by survivors, and it appears officials too, to be acting as an agent of Dow Chemical.

The case asked that the factory site be remediated by local government and made no attempt to fix liability for the cost of the clean-up on the polluter, Union Carbide, now a wholly integrated part of Dow Chemical. It is not a coincidence that in New York, a class action suit brought by victims of the water poisoning is nearing its climax. The suspicion is that Dow engineered the Jabalpur case as a spoiling tactic. Thanks to the intervention of survivors' groups in the case, that ploy cannot now succeed, but it has meant that for the last several months, survivors and their supporters have been involved in a series of public battles with local politicians and officials and Dow and Union Carbide, who are the cause of all this suffering and trouble, have escaped attention. That reprieve cannot last, even the blows and kicks suffered by women and children at the hands of the Bhopal police will come at last to haunt the Dow moguls who believe themselves to be above and beyond the reach of justice.

Posted by bhola at 07:48 PM | Comments (0)

August 13, 2005

MP High Court passes order allowing Bhopal groups to submit cleanup plans in contamination case

August 13, 2005

Press Statement

Non-government organizations active on the issue of hazardous contamination in and around the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal welcomed today's order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in which they have been asked to provide a detailed plan for removal and containment of hazardous waste in a safe and scientific manner.

The organizations expressed satisfaction with the direction of the Chief Justice that the NGOs suggest and take part in the implementation of corrective measures with regard to the supposed work of repacking of hazardous waste carried out under the supervision of the MP Pollution Control Board in June this year. The
organizations will be submitting a detailed action plan including immediate rectification measures for containment of above-surface chemical waste inside the factory by September 15, 2005.

The contention of the Union and State Government that the NGOs were a hindrance to the process of clean up, was expressly rejected by the Chief Justice, with the observation that the NGOs have local knowledge and technical expertise to make meaningful suggestions that would benefit the people of Bhopal.

The organizations who will be providing the detailed action plan are Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal ki Aawaaz, Bhopal Group for Information and Action, Bhopal Gas Peedit Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti and Greenpeace.

The organizations will be contacting other Bhopal based organizations and international experts to draw up a safe and practical methodology for containment of toxic waste and remediation of ground water that follows International protocols.

Rashida Bi, Champa Devi Shukla
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh
9303132298 

Syed M Irfan,
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha
9329026319 

Shahid Noor
Bhopal ki Aawaaz
9826182226 

Satinath Sarangi, Rachna Dhingra,
Bhopal Group for Information and Action
9826167369 

Bhopal Gas Peedit Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti
N.D. Jayprakash
011-2766980

Greenpeace
Vinuta Gopal
09845535418

Posted by tim at 02:04 AM | Comments (0)

August 04, 2005

BMHT Chief Receives Home Visit

On August 2nd Bhopal survivors travelled 700 miles to Delhi to meet A.M. Ahmadi, Chairman of the Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust: Mr. Ahmadi elected not to walk ten yards to meet a few patients of the hospital his Trust manages. The former Indian chief justice has reason to hide: the staff strike of last month remains unresolved.

Survivors display placards describing the misdemeanours occuring at the BMHT

Hindustan Times: Bhopal Live
Aug 1, 2005

Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Centre (BMHRC) management seemed nervous at the prospects of another round of strike by its employees as reported in a section of local media. Junior doctors and paramedical staff of the hospital had gone on strike in first week of July.

Prompted by these reports working trustee of the BMHRC Trust Aziz Ahmed Siddiqi and Director General of the hospital Dr Indraneel Mitra today addressed a joint press conference to drive home the point that strike was totally  uncalled for as the Trust still had a week before the deadline to decide on the employees’ demand for Central pay scale.

They said that employees leaders had not yet served any strike notice nor have they talked to them on their ‘reported’ threat to proceed on strike once again. But, they thought it imperative to state the facts of the situation in the wake of reports of impending strike, they added.

Dr Mitra said the implementation of Central pay scale for the employees was a complicated matter.

A sizeable section of the employees, particularly senior doctors, would be in a huge loss if the Central pay scale were given to the staff, he claimed.

He further said that there are at least 120 employees, particularly among the paramedical staff, who do meet the qualification criteria as applicable for Central Government staff.

When asked as to who was stopping the management to give them Central scale even if they not have the requisite qualification, he said, ‘nobody but the issue will have to be considered’

He further said that there are at least that the sub-committee formed by the Trust to consider the demand for Central pay scale had met on July 2 and would again be meeting on August 8 to finally decide on the issue. And, by this month end the Trust would decide on the issue, he said.

In any case, doctors and paramedical staff have nothing to lose since they would be getting new scale with retrospective effect i.e. July 1, he said.

Dr Mitra further contended that junior doctors themselves could fetch the scale as given to the staff at Safdarjung hospital in Delhi as late as July 20 and it would be inappropriate to expect the Trust to take a ‘hasty’ decision on the issue without taking all the aspects into consideration.

However, he could not answer as to why he should clarify his position vis-à-vis proposed strike by the employees without talking to them and ascertaining whether reports appearing in a section of
media to this effect were true.

“I would be meeting them at 4:00 pm and talk on the issue.” He repeatedly said.

Posted by tim at 01:19 AM | Comments (0)