HC orders incineration of Union Carbide waste after review: Vijayvargiya

Madhya Pradesh Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya on Sunday said the high court ordered the incineration of the 337 tonnes of waste from the Union Carbide factory at a unit in Pithampur after carefully observing the process.

Earlier this month, protests rocked Pithampur, around 50 km from Dhar district headquarters, after the waste from Bhopal-based Union Carbide reached a private facility for incineration.

Since the protest, the local administration has been carrying out an intense awareness campaign to allay the said misconceptions about waste disposal.

Talking to reporters after participating in a Republic Day function in Dhar, Minister Vijayvargiya expressed satisfaction with the public awareness campaign in the district.

He cited an awareness video that answered all questions raised in a previous meeting.

"The work of waste disposal is being done scientifically. I think the high court has observed the entire incineration process, and only after that directives have been issued. Therefore, some waste was first incinerated, and the product that came out was seen. Is there any poisonous gas in it? Is there any solid metal in it? There is a system for disposal of all these inside this waste disposal factory," he said.

He urged residents of Dhar to watch the awareness video and said if they still had questions, a "Jan Samvad" could be organised in his presence with the district collector.

"The waste has been lying there (Union Carbide factory) for 40 years, so whatever poisonous things were in it, they got destroyed automatically. All these are scientific facts. If the high court has given directions, it has done so after examining all the facts," the minister said.

He claimed that people are spreading misconceptions about waste disposal in Pithampur.

"We are a government for public welfare. We are a government that works for the benefit of the people. We will not do works that harm the public. We are committed to this," Vijayvargiya said.

He said information about the incineration would be shared with the Central government and High Court.

"I think it is important to allay people's fears and apprehensions," he said.

On January 6, the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the state government to take steps within six weeks to dispose of the Union Carbide factory waste by following safety protocol.

On the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, killing at least 5,479 persons and leaving thousands with serious health problems and long-term disabilities.