Union minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh on Saturday announced that an experts committee will go into all aspects and only after that the decision would be taken whether or not to go ahead with the burning of Union Carbide toxic waste at Peethampur.
After meeting the state minister for Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation and representatives of NGOs working for the cause of the victims of the 1984 gas disaster in the state capital on Friday, Mr Ramesh had said: “We will consult experts and take the NGOs along on this.”
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has also taken the categorical stand that nothing would be done (on the Carbide waste disposal front) without taking the people into confidence.
The residents of Tarpura village, which is barely a stone’s throw from the Ramky Enviro Limited’s incinerator facility at Peethampur, came out in large numbers on Saturday and held a demonstration to protest against the dumping of huge quantities of highly toxic waste near the residential area when the Union minister for environment visited that area. They held banners and shouted slogans against any move to burn Carbide waste at Peethampur. RS member and former MLA from Dhar (Peethampur comes under Dhar constituency), Vikram Verma, told this newspaper that the people of Tarpura village are angry because tonnes of hazardous waste was brought to Peethampur from Bhopal and dumped in a landfill without informing the local people and their elected representatives about the potential hazard. Under the law, hazardous waste cannot be left in a landfill for more than 90 days, whereas the toxic waste from Bhopal was lying at Peethampur for a couple of years, Mr Verma said.