Pictures of the ‘clean up’ here (high res images available)
SECOND STAGE OF THE AUTHORITIES’ “CLEAN-UP”:
MACHINES CREATE CHEMICAL POISON CLOUDS
The contractor hired by the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board brings in machines and starts shifting dangerous chemicals with no protective clothing for workers. The company involved is Ramky Pharma City [India] Ltd of Hyderabad.
Clouds of poisons rise up into the air and can be smelt at considerable distances away from the factory. Residents of nearby communities, whose water is poisoned by chemicals leaking from the factory, and many of whom are victims of the original 1984 disaster, start feeling sick.
Soon there is near panic in the bastis (local communities) as the clouds of chemicals thicken. Many people, including a six month old child, become ill.
The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal has long demanded a clean-up, but to recognised international standards of safety, not some twopenny operation that endangers the lives of workers and local people. The picture above shows tar lying on the ground. For more about the chemicals at the factory go here.
Members of the ICJB who had been given assurances that they would be allowed to monitor the clean-up are denied entry, large numbers of armed police are brought by the authorities to make sure that the outside world does not find out what is happening inside.
We need your help and we need it now. Please phone the following officials who are responsible for this situation and demand that
1) the clean-up must be conducted to the highest international safety standards
2) that observers from the community and the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Bhopal should be allowed entry.
Please call them on their mobiles or at home, at all hours (Bhopal is 5 1/2 hours ahead of GMT:
Dr P S Dubey Chairman, M P Pollution Control Board:
+91-755-2423653 [home] +91 94251 95541 [mobile]
Dr B S Ohri, Director, Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief & Rehabilitation, Government of Madhya Pradesh:
+91-755-2763585 [home] +91 94250 04414 [mobile]
[In charge of the work inside the Carbide factory]
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