Concerned official circles in Madhya Pradesh are now in the action mode and have started defining the strategy to “leave behind the grim legacy of Union Carbide gas disaster of 1984 and carve out a future and build Bhopal as a global environment city” as emphasised by Prime Minister’s advisor Sam Pitroda during his visit to the state capital earlier this month.

Mr Pitroda, who has agreed to be a mentor for the state government for achieving this objective, has also told the state government that the goal of developing Bhopal as an “environment-friendly global city” should be achieved within five years.

Perennial Jamni river will be linked to nearby lakes to assist in irrigation

The Madhya Pradesh government claims to have launched the country's first ever river-lake linking project in the water-scarce Bundelkhand region. The Harpura irrigation and river-lake link project, launched in the Tikamgarh district, will be implemented under the Centre's Rs.7266 crore Bundelkhand package. It will link the perennial Jamni river to the nearby lakes and water bodies built during the Chandel era. Under the project, an additional 1,980 hectares of land are expected to come under irrigation.

German company GIZ, which has offered to airlift the highly-dangerous toxic waste from Union Carbide’s Bhopal plant for disposal in Germany, has raised “doubts” about the logistic support facilities at Bhopal airport for handling of such sophisticated cargo to avoid any environment problem.

The Centre, which though had decided to engage GIZ for disposing the 350 tonnes of highly-dangerous toxic waste of methyl isocyanate left in the UCIL plant after the 1984 gas leak disaster, has left it to the company to make independent assessment of the airport facilities.

Five non-government organisations representing victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster on Monday described the latest decision taken at the meeting of Group of Ministers to send 350 tonnes of hazardous waste from the abandoned Union Carbide pesticide plant to Germany for safe disposal was a vindication of their long-standing demand on the issue.

They described this as a “minor but significant victory” in their 22 year long battle. At a press conference here, the organisations pointed out that the GoM’s decision has highlighted the toxic nature of Union Carbide’s waste and the ongoing dangers posed by the thousands of tonnes of hazardous waste in and around the abandoned pesticide factory.

A five-year-old tiger spotted moving on a couple of occasions recently in the forest belt between Kathotia and Kerwan, touching the southern tip of Bhopal, whose first clear picture was taken by the camera trapping method last November, has been killed by poachers.

State principal chief conservator of forest and chief wildlife warden Pramod Kumar Shukla told this newspaper that after recovering the tiger’s body on Tuesday, the forest authorities had rounded up and interrogated a few persons from Kathotia village.

Union home minister P Chidambaram, who is heading a Group of Ministers (GoM) on Bhopal gas disaster, said here on Tuesday the group will meet on June 8 decide on the remediation of 390 metric tonne

Union home minister P. Chidambaram said on Tuesday that the toxic waste lying at the abandoned Union Carbide pesticide plant in the state capital has not been disposed of till now since three state governments refused to allow the disposal of hundreds of tonnes of hazardous waste in their territory.

Mr Chidambaram was addressing a press conference in the state capital after visiting the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) set up for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster along with Union ministers — Salman Khurshid and V. Narayanasamy. Outside BMHRC, the home minister was shown black flags by some Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parsihad activists.

Alleging that the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the Bhopal gas tragedy had failed to keep the promises made to victims, victim organizations urged GoM chairperson and Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram to present correct figures of death and injury to provide adequate compensation, and also to treat environmental remediation as a separate issue in itself.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram, along with Minister of Law and Justice Salman Khurshid, and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V. Narayansamy, will be visiting Bhopal on Tuesday, to take stock of the situation, regarding disposal of tonnes of hazardous waste lying inside the Union Carbide factory premises.

The war of words between the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation Ltd. (SMHPCL), the private company building the Maheshwar dam, has reached its peak with the NBA threatening to file a suit against the company for making “wild and defamatory” allegations.

“The SMHPCL has falsely stated that the petition in the National Green Tribunal was not filed by project oustees but by the office-bearers of the NBA. Both the petitioners are bona fide oustees affected by the Maheshwar and neither of them are office-bearers,” NBA leader Alok Agarwal told The Hindu .

Order welcomed by Narmada Bachao Andolan.