High Court stays "clean up": petitioners ask Dow to deposit funds for remediation to international standards

15 July, 2005
A division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has stayed shifting and disfiguration of property of the now-closed pesticide plant of the MNC Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) at Bhopal.
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Local woman Noor Jehan lies in hospital after the bungled “clean-up” attempt sent a cloud of chemical dust over her neighbourhood.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice R V Raveendran and Justice S S Khemkar issued the directive yesterday on a PIL filed by Mr Alok Pratap Singh of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Sangathan and others.
The petitioners contended that the chemicals lying in the 88-acre factory premises were causing air and water pollution in adjoining areas and sought directives to prevent pollution.
During the hearing, the counsel for the Union government said that about Rs 100 crore were required for shifting of the chemicals and sought a court directive to the UCC and its present owner Dow Chemicals and Eveready India Ltd to deposit Rs 100 crore for neutralising the chemicals.
The UCC pesticide plant was ordered closed since the 1984 gas leak disaster which killed several thousand people and injured half a million.

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