Union home minister P. Chidambaram said on Tuesday that the toxic waste lying at the abandoned Union Carbide pesticide plant in the state capital has not been disposed of till now since three state governments refused to allow the disposal of hundreds of tonnes of hazardous waste in their territory.
Mr Chidambaram was addressing a press conference in the state capital after visiting the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) set up for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster along with Union ministers — Salman Khurshid and V. Narayanasamy. Outside BMHRC, the home minister was shown black flags by some Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parsihad activists.
A number of gas victims, led by leaders of few organisations working for their cause, also lodged a protest when they were not allowed to go en bloc and meet Mr Chidambaram.
The police personnel on duty were even seen using force and manhandling the gas victims. Finally six of them, including Satinath Sarangi of Bhopal Group for Information and Action, were allowed to meet the home minister, who was given a memorandum and asked to correct the figures in the curative petition. He was also told that the toxic contamination is not a matter of just 350 metric tonnes of toxic waste kept in a warehouse inside the Union Carbide Plant but thousands of tonnes more which is lying scattered all around and is open to the elements.
The minister was also asked to order investigation into allegations of drug trials by two BMHRC doctors resulting in the death of 30 gas victims.
Addressing media-persons, the home minister said: “We had spoken to the governments of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra but they refused to allow disposal of the toxic waste.”
Initially, the disposal was to be done at Ankleshwar in Gujarat. Then there was a proposed to dispose it at Pithampur near Indore in Madhya Pradesh and at Taluja in Maharashtra, he said adding, due to opposition from the state government, it was not possible to go ahead and carry out the waste disposal exercise.