The Madhya Pradesh government has filed a petition in the Supreme Court to “pre-empt the trial run for burning the Union Carbide’s waste at Pithampur”.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan will employ the services of “some senior lawyer of the Supreme Court for effective presentation of the stand of the people of Madhya Pradesh” over the issue.
Mr. Chauhan reviewed the matter pertaining to disposal of Union Carbide’s waste at a meeting here on Saturday. Minister for Housing and Environment Shri Jayant Malaiya also attended the meeting.
On April 4, the Supreme Court had directed a trial run of the incineration of the hazardous Union Carbide waste at Pithampur near Indore and had asked the state government and the state pollution control board to cooperate with the Central Pollution Control Board in the trial run.
The State government is considering the offer made by German waste-disposal firm GIZ, which has proposed to incinerate the waste in Hamburg, Germany. The M.P. government has already sent a proposal in this regard to the union ministry of environment and forests.
Former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had also requested the GoM on Bhopal, led by home minister P. Chidambaram, to consider the GIZ offer, in a communication earlier this week.
Mr. Chauhan has written to the union minister of state for Forests and Environment Jayanti Natrajan urging her to shortly convene a meeting of the Oversight Committee constituted on Bhopal Gas Tragedy for a decision in this regard.