The work to remove 377 metric tonnes of hazardous waste from the now-defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal has got underway ahead of its planned disposal near Indore.
The development comes weeks after the Madhya Pradesh High Court chided the authorities for not taking action despite repeated directions to clear the site in the Madhya Pradesh capital.
The highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide pesticides factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, killing 5,479 persons and leaving more than five lakh others with health problems and long-term disabilities.
On Sunday morning, half-a-dozen GPS-enabled trucks with specially reinforced containers reached the factory site as part of the waste disposal process.
Several workers wearing special PPE kits and officials of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation, environmental agencies, doctors and incineration experts were seen working at the site. Police were also deployed around the factory.
The toxic waste will be moved to an incineration site in Pithampur near Indore, around 250 km from Bhopal, sources said.
The MP High Court on December 3 set a four-week deadline to shift the toxic waste from the factory, observing that even 40 years after the gas disaster, the authorities were in a 바카라state of inertia바카라 that may cause 바카라another tragedy바카라.
Describing it as a 바카라sorry state of affairs바카라, the HC warned the government of contempt proceedings if its directive was not followed.
바카라The waste of Bhopal gas tragedy is a stigma which is going to disappear after 40 years. We will dispose of it by sending it safely to Pithampur,바카라 Swatantra Kumar Singh, director of the state's Gas Relief and Rehabilitation Department told PTI.
