Toxic waste from the now-defunct Union Carbide factory was shifted on Wednesday — some forty years after the Bhopal gas tragedy. A group of 100 people have worked 30-minute shifts since Sunday to pack the highly toxic substances into 12 sealed container trucks. The waste is currently enroute to the Pithampur industrial area in Dhar district where it will be destroyed.
“It was the remaining industrial waste of the tragedy that took place 40 years ago. The remains will be destroyed by an SOP in the coming days... The Green Corridor is around 250 km long. Around 50 police personnel have been deployed,” said Bhopal Police Commissioner Harinarayanchari Mishra.
Officials said the toxic waste will travel non-stop to reach its destination in around seven hours.
The development — part of a clean up process initiated by the state administration — comes nearly a month after the Madhya Pradesh High Court rebuked authorities for failing to clear the site despite directions from the Supreme Court and other authorities. It had set a four-week deadline for the relocation and lambasted the authorities for remaining in a “state of inertia”.
"We fail to understand that in spite of issuance of various directions from time to time by the Hon'ble Supreme Court as well as by this Court, pursuant to the plan dated 23.03.2024, till date no steps seem to have been taken to remove to the toxic waste and material," a division bench of Chief Justice SK Kait and Justice Vivek Jain had said.
Highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, killing at least 5,479 people and leaving thousands with serious and long-lasting health issues. It is considered to be among the worst industrial disasters in the world.
(With inputs from agencies)
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