PITHAMPUR ON WARPATH

SHIFTING TOXIC WASTE FROM BHOPAL'S ILL-FATED UNION CARBIDE PLANT AFTER 40 YRS VIA A JUDICIAL FIAT SANS PUBLIC HEARING HAS UPSET RESIDENTS OF PITHAMPUR & INDORE, AS THEY FEAR ITS INCINERATION COULD ADVERSELY AFFECT WATER BODIES

- ANURAAG SINGH @Bhopal

FORTY years after a late-night leak of noxious methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas at the Union Carbide India Limited's (UCIL) pesticide plant killed over 5,500 people in its vicinity in Bhopal and cast its adverse shadow on successive generations, its toxic waste was finally shifted out of Bhopal on January 1. Twelve specially designed, sealed, leak-proof, fire-resistant and GPS tracking-enabled containers, carrying 358 metric tonnes of toxic waste were escorted by police and emergency vehicles through a 250-km Green Corridor to the industrial town of Pithampur in Dhar district of western MP, around 30 km from India's cleanest and the state's most populated city, Indore.

The waste will be stored, treated and incinerated at a treatment-storage-disposal facility (TSDF) in the Pithampur Industrial Area. The transportation was necessitated following a December 3 order by the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court that was hearing a petition filed way back in 2004 by Alok Pratap, a leader of the gas tragedy's victims based in Bhopal. Pratap died in a road accident in 2015. The court gave the government four weeks to shift out the waste.