Activists demand stringent safety norms

Activists here Tuesday urged the central and state governments to strictly enforce environment safety laws to protect life as well as property from human negligence.

The participants were speaking at a seminar on "Lessons of Bhopal Tragedy", to mark the 30th anniversary of the grim tragedy that hit Bhopal Dec 2-3, 1984.

In Agra too, hazardous chemicals from tanneries and petha units flow into the Yamuna river while fires in shoe units posed a major threat to environment and human survival, speakers said.

Chandra Kant Tripathi, registrar of the Central Hindi Institute, said: "Our attitude towards maintaining safety norms is lax, at times callous. This mindset should change."

An NGO functionary, Shravan Kumar Singh, said training in safety and precautions must begin from schools.

He asked the fire brigade, police and pollution control board officials to regularly monitor industries.

Activist Anand Rai said the way industries were being run, "one can only be grateful to god that tragedies like the one in Bhopal are not repeated. Our level of preparedness for disaster management is tardy and faulty".

Activists Mahendra Rawat and Sandhya Agarwal demanded strict vigilance and punishment for those failing to implement safety norms.

"We hear of industrial accidents, leakage from chemical factories or blasts. The need of the hour is to educate people."