HC gives 6 weeks to MP govt to act on Union Carbide waste disposal as per safety norms

Bhopal, Jan 6 (PTI) The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Monday granted six weeks to the state government to act on the Union Carbide factory waste disposal as per the safety guidelines.

It also directed the media not to give incorrect news on the issue of the waste disposal.

The waste, packed in 12 sealed containers, was shifted on January 2 from the now defunct Union Carbide factory in state capital Bhopal to the disposal site at Pithampur in Dhar district, located 250 km from here.

A division bench of HC comprising Chief Justice SK Kait and Justice Vivek Jain granted time to the state government after Advocate General Prashant Singh sought it to take the public of Pithampur into confidence and dispel fear from their mind before taking up the waste disposal.

Singh submitted to the court that unrest had been caused in Pithampur township due to fictitious and fake news regarding the Union Carbide waste disposal.

After the state government’s submission, the bench restrained the print, audio and visual media from carrying any incorrect news on the matter.

Furthermore, the state sought three days to unload the waste shifted from Bhopal to Pithampur in 12 sealed containers.

To this, the HC bench said it was the state’s prerogative to act on it safely and according to the guidelines.

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

Senior advocate Naman Nagrath, representing the petitioner late Alok Pratap Singh, submitted that the waste should be disposed of safely after a test to remove fear from the people’s mind.

Singh had filed the writ petition in 2004 regarding the removal of waste from the now Union Carbide factory here and its disposal.

“In view of the widespread agitation and resistance, the general public should be taken into confidence and for that the waste may be tested to determine its current level of toxicity. The test report should be made public,” Nagrath told PTI after the hearing.

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.

During the last hearing on December 3, 2024, the HC pulled up the authorities for failing to dispose of the waste which was lying at the now-defunct Union Carbide factory here.

Even 40 years after the gas disaster, the authorities are in a “state of inertia” that may cause another tragedy, it had said.

The HC 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’s direction had come on the writ petition filed in 2004 for the disposal of waste from the Union Carbide plant, which triggered one of the world’s worst industrial disasters.