Over 100 survivors of the Union Carbide disaster and people exposed to ground water contaminated by Union Carbide’s hazardous waste, today demonstrated at the office of the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board demanding explanation of its role in the toxic exposure and injury of six workers at the MP Waste Management Facility at Pithampur near Indore.
Organizations leading the victims presented documents obtained through RTI that demonstrate that the MP Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) granted Consent for Operation for incineration to the MP waste management facility run by Ramky Enviro Engineers on March 18, 2010 despite several violations of Hazardous Waste Management Rules.
“The village Tarpura is only about 200 meters from the incinerator. We have been there and seen how close people live to the incinerator” said Satinath Sarangi of Bhopal Group for Information and Action. He pointed out that this is a clear violation of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines that stipulate that there should be no habitation within 500 meters of a waste management facility.
Pointing out that this violation has been recorded in several inspection reports between 2008 and 2010 carried out by MPPCB and CPCB, Balkrishna Namdeo of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha said “Ramky has been allowed to run its project without installing such critical facilities as Multi Effect Evaporator and Mechanical Stabilizing system. These deficiencies among many others have been recorded but have been overlooked ultimately to help Dow Chemical current owner of Union Carbide”.
According to the organizations top waste management experts are unanimous that there are no waste management facilities in India that can safely dispose off Union Carbide’s hazardous waste and it can only be done in advanced facilities such as in Canada, USA, Germany and Denmark.
The organizations held that Dow Chemical alone has the financial and technical resources for safe transportation and disposal of Union Carbide’s wastes. They complain that instead of making Dow Chemical pay for it, the central and state governments have decided to dispose off the waste as cheaply as possible without any consideration to safety of workers and residents or to rules governing waste management.
“The toxic exposure and injury of workers at Pithampur demonstrates the criminal negligence of both the state and central governments. The Ramky incinerator was being used as per the recommendations of the Group of Ministers on Bhopal and the directions of the Cabinet Committee that were based on them. Succumbing to pressures from the central and state governments the MPPCB showed utter disregard to its mandate of controlling pollution.” said Abdul Jabbar, Convenor of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan.
Safreen Khan
Children Against Dow-Carbide
Mob. 9826994797
Balkrishna Namdeo
Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha
Mob. 9826345423
Abdul Jabbar
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan
Mob. 9406511720
Syed M Irfan
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha
Mob. 9329026319
Rashida Bee,
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh
Mob. 9425688215
Rachna Dhingra, Satinath Sarangi
Bhopal Group for Information and Action
Mob. 9826167369
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