The Supreme Court today expressed concern over alleged illegal clinical trial of drugs in the country, saying its “unfortunate” that humans were being treated as “guinea pigs”.

A bench headed by Justice R M Lodha pulled up the Centre and the Madhya Pradesh government for not filing their response on PILs alleging large-scale illegal drug trials in the State and other parts of the country.

Indore, the state's commercial capital, once dependent on the Bilawali and Limbodi water tanks, as well as from the Yashwant Sagar dam is now heavily dependent on the Narmada River (70 km away) for

The visible part of the waste to go to Germany first, buried part in next phase

The 350 tonnes of toxic waste dumped on the premises of the erstwhile Union Carbide factory in Bhopal would be flown to Germany to be incinerated, either there or in any other part of Europe in line with the proposal of GIZ, the German state agency. Yesterday’s cabinet approval of the proposal marks a milestone in the nearly three-decade wait to clean the 32-acre site housing remnants of the toxic pesticides left by the company after the industrial disaster there in end-1984.

Almost three decades after deadly gases spewed out of the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, the Union Cabinet has finally approved the proposal to airlift 350 tonnes of toxic waste from the defunct pesticide factory site to Germany for safe disposal.

Tuesday's Cabinet decision comes after attempts to dispose of the waste in several Indian plants were vociferously opposed by nearby residents. The Central government will pay Rs. 25 lakh to German firm GIZ to remove the waste.

Survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy and some non-government organisations (NGOs) have decided to appeal in the second circuit court of appeals against the US court summary judgment which ruled that neither Union Carbide nor its former chairman, Warren Anderson, were liable for environmental remediation emanating from one of the world's worst industrial accidents.

Interestingly, the state government, which had earlier promised to be an intervener in the case has done nothing so far, claims activists. Even after the recent judgement, the state government, reportedly, has made no announcement on whether it would be on the side of the victims who are fighting for justice.

Thousands of people affected by the Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, Indira Sagar, Upper Beda and Man dams responded to a call by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and joined a protest march at Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday to raise their voice against the state government decision to raise the water level in Omkares-hwar Dam up to 193 metres.

After the protest march, the people affected by the dams announced that they would start a “Jal Satyagrah” from July 16 against what they described as a “conspiracy” by the state government and the private company involved in the project to uproot the dam affected people without their rehabilitation or proper resettlement.

There is stiff resistance to the latest US federal court order that neither Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) nor its former chairman Warren Anderson were liable for any pollution-linked claims by the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster and the non-government organisations working here for the cause of the gas victims are determined to go in appeal against this order.

Reacting to the US district Court Judge John F. Keenan’s dismissal of the case on June 26, Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action said that is the fourth instance of dismissal.

In a setback to 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy victims, a United States court has held that neither Union Carbide nor its former chairman Warren Anderson were liable for environmental remediation or pollution-related claims at the firm’s former chemical plant in Bhopal.

In his written opinion, US district judge John Keena concluded that even when viewing the evidence in the most favourable light for the plaintiffs, UCC is not directly liable, nor liable as an agent of UCIL, nor liable under a veil-piercing analysis.

Victims and survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy staged a “die-in” protest here on Wednesday to “remind the organisers” of the Olympic Games in London that they have exactly one month to drop Dow Chemical as a sponsor of the event.

Dow Chemical, through its takeover of Union Carbide, has inherited its civil, criminal and environmental liabilities in [the] Bhopal gas leak [case], but the corporation refuses to accept them. The people in Bhopal are still dying, over a hundred thousand survivors are battling chronic illnesses, and children are still being born with horrific deformities because of Dow Chemical’s refusal to own up to Union Carbide’s liabilities in Bhopal,”

Essar Energy, on Monday, said it had received provisional forest clearance from the Group of Ministers (GoM) for its Mahan coal block in Madhya Pradesh. It also announced that operations of the 380-MW Vadinar P1 gas-fired power station had commenced.

The coal-fired Vadinar P2 project, with a total 510 MW capacity, is one of three power plants being completed by Essar Energy during 2012. The 1,200-MW Salaya I project has already been fully commissioned, and is commercially operational, while the 1,200-MW Mahan I project is expected to be synchronised shortly.