Centre to pay to clean up Bhopal
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COMMENTS 
Even as it pursues its case to make Dow Chemical pay for cleaning up the Bhopal gas leak site, the Centre has decided to spend around Rs 250 crore towards complete remediation
A giant clean-up at the site of the Bhopal gas tragedy, more money for those affected by it, and new legal action to assign corporate responsibility for the effort are some of the highlights of the remediation and rehabilitation plan that the Indian government will consider as it tries to erase its past mistakes.
The Group of Ministers (GoM) assigned to study the different dimensions of the Bhopal tragedy, and the aftermath of a court verdict delivered earlier this month, on June 20, 2010, finalised its recommendations to be evaluated by the Union Cabinet on Thursday.
While the Centre will offer funding and technical support, the Madhya Pradesh government will handle the sanitisation of the defunct Carbide plant where a gas leak in 1984 led to over 20,000 deaths. The entire process of decontaminating tonnes of toxic waste at the site will be finished in two to three years, according to sources at the fourth meeting of the GoM.
The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), which made a presentation at the GoM meeting, has recommended that the decontaminated soil be buried between concrete slabs at the site itself.
The central government will bankroll the clean-up for now, but will ask in court for Dow Chemical, which bought Carbide in 2001, to be held financially liable. The government will also begin a new initiative for the extradition of Warren Anderson, who was the American CEO of Carbide in 1984. He has ignored a series of court summons to stand trial in India.
The GoM was set up earlier this month after a Bhopal court delivered a verdict that shocked India: two years in prison for seven Indians who were Carbide executives at the time of the tragedy. They were granted bail immediately.
After the meeting, Home Minister P Chidambaram told the media that the GoM covered all the subjects identified under its mandate. Sunday’s meeting focused on the environmental aspects of the disaster, including “remediation of contaminated soil, contaminated water, the toxic waste that is at the site and the corroded plant, the corroded steel and other material,” Chidambaram said.
On Saturday, the GoM decided that the government would vigorously pursue its case against Dow Chemical in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, directing the company to deposit Rs 100 crore towards the cost of the clean-up. However, activists and victims’ groups are worried that the government’s decision to pay for the remediation means that Dow Chemical is effectively being let off the hook.
Sources at the meeting said one suggestion discussed was the establishment of an Empowered Remediation Authority. However, the state government was not keen on the idea, and the general conclusion was that the primary responsibility remained with the state government.
NEERI, along with the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology and the National Geophysical Research Institute, will submit a joint report by the end of June on technical details of site remediation and dismantling, detoxification and decommissioning of the plant structure itself.
The disposal of toxic waste, which, according to one GoM member was much more than the 350 MT assessed by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, has been a touchy issue given the reluctance demonstrated by other places for incineration. The Gujarat government had earlier denied permission for 350 MT of Bhopal gas plant waste after initially granting permission. The Madhya Pradesh government then set up additional incinerators in Pithapur near Indore to dispose of the waste but there has been opposition from NGOs and locals even on this score.
“One of the proposals discussed today was for burying the waste at the site where the plant itself is located,” said a member of the GoM. “The more critical issue, however, is what should be done about the factory itself. There were suggestions that a memorial be constructed and another one that the factory be dismantled, melted and reused.”
Source: The Hindu, June 21, 2010
The Indian Express, June 21, 2010
http://www.ndtv.com, June 2010