HC directs MP to act on Union Carbide waste disposal in 6 weeks

The Madhya Pradesh high court in Jabalpur on Monday directed the state government to take steps within six weeks for disposal of Bhopal-based Union Carbide's 337 tonnes of hazardous waste as per safety protocols, while restraining the media from publishing any fake news on the same.

A division bench of Chief Justice SK Kait and Justice Vivek Jain said its December 2024 order directing for all waste material to be taken from the Bhopal plant for disposal was sufficient and hence does not require any further orders or directives.

The Advocate General, representing the state government, had sought permission from the HC to unload the toxic material from the container trucks parked at Pithampur town in Dhar district.

The toxic chemical waste is supposed to be incinerated at a site in the industrial town, 250 km from Bhopal, but the move is facing stiff resistance from local residents.

Hearing a petition of 2004 on the issue of disposal of the hazardous waste, the court said no further directives was required from it and that it was for the government to now take steps for disposal.

"It is pertinent to mention here that vide order dated 03.12.2024, this Court directed to take waste material from Bhopal and dispose off the same as per norms. Thus, no further order is required to be passed to unload the waste material. It is for the State to unload and dispose of the waste material as per (December 3) direction of this Court," the four-page order said.

In an affidavit submitted before the HC, the government informed the court that pursuant to its December 3 last year order, the waste was loaded in 12 fire proof and leak proof containers and transported in the long haul trailers/trucks on the night of January 1 with the support of the police and the administration.

"A green corridor was provided to the convoy and the transportation was done as per the approved SOP and tender requirements which were totally in line with the Central Pollution Control Board guidelines," the affidavit noted.

The government informed the HC that there has been a huge public outcry on the basis of certain fictitious media report in which "baseless rumours have been floated with the various sections of the media to paint a picture that another industrial disaster would take place if the waste is unloaded and disposed off at the facility at Pithampur which would lead to severe environmental implications."

The court directed the print media and electronic media "not to publish any fake news in the matter of disposal of waste material which is not real or not based on any foundation/evidence."

The government also informed the court that it would need some time to to infuse confidence in the public and "dispel their myths by giving them factual inputs so that they may not be misguided by the fake news and the wrongful information floated by miscreants and vested interest."

The court gave six weeks' time to the government for complying with its December 3 order, in which the HC had directed the state authorities to dispose of the toxic waste lying at the now-defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal.

The court had said even 40 years after the gas disaster, the authorities are in a "state of inertia" that may cause "another tragedy".

Describing it as a "sorry state of affairs", the high court had asked the government to remove and transport the hazardous waste from the site within four weeks, failing which it will have to face contempt proceedings.

Following the order, the waste was shifted on intervening nights of January 1 and 2 from the Union Carbide factory to the disposal site at Pithampur.

The shifting of waste led to widespread protests in the industrial town and on Friday last, two men attempted self-immolation amid a bandh call given by the Pithampur Bachao Samiti.

The town, some 50km from the district headquarters and a major industrial belt, saw protests on Friday and Saturday, with residents carrying out sit-ins and a mob pelting stones at the gate of the unit where the waste is set to be disposed of.

However, on Monday normalcy returned to the town and markets remained open, people were seen moving about like other days and police barricades had gone from most parts of the town with a population of 1.75 lakh.

Pithampur, some 30 kilometres from MP's commercial capital Indore, is home to at least 700 industrial units.

Rachna Dingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA), an organisation working for the 1984 gas tragedy survivors and an intervener in the case since 2005, told the court in person that Union Carbide and (its current owner) Dow Chemicals should be asked to take the toxic waste to the US or to any OECD country.

She submitted that the last HC order (of December 3, 2024) asked for removal of the entire toxic material and contended that 337 tonnes transported from the factory was only 1 per cent of the total waste.

Nearly 1.1 million tonnes of waste is lying inside and outside the factory which has contaminated the groundwater in 42 communities in a population of more than 1,00,000, Dingra told court.

BGIA counsel Avi Singh told the court online from Delhi that the government's counsel has pointed out that they have shifted the toxic material without testing what it constitutes.

Advocate Naman Nagrath, representing petitioner late Alok Pratap Singh, who had filed the plea in 2004, submitted the waste should be disposed of safely