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`Steps on to clean up chemical waste in Union Carbide plant'

Staff Correspondent

Site for dumping it will be selected based on experts' opinion: Minister

— Photo: A.M. Faruqui

TOXIC PILE-UP: The Madhya Pradesh Gas Relief and Rehabilitation Minister, Uma Shankar Gupta, inspecting the waste at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal on Saturday.

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh Minister for Bhopal Gas Tragedy relief and Rehabilitation, Uma Shankar Gupta, reiterated on Saturday that the State Government was fully aware of safety precautions and was making adequate arrangements for removing the chemical waste in the Carbide plant.

Mr. Gupta made this assertion after inspecting the abandoned plant. He said: "Actually it is Dow Chemicals, which should bear the full cost of cleaning up the plant site." However since it would be a time-consuming exercise to make the multinational company pay for the cleaning up operation, the Centre was being asked to arrange funds for the purpose, he said.

Mr. Gupta told journalists that the site for dumping the waste, which is now lying inside the plant, would be selected only on the basis of experts' opinion. The Minister brushed aside allegations that workers were being exposed to toxic chemicals and said that the contractors engaged by the authorities had informed that no one had been adversely affected.

This assertion, a day before a Hyderabad-based company will commence the cleaning up operation, is particularly significant since it comes in the wake of allegations that workers employed by State agencies continue to inhale toxic dust and handle poisonous chemicals with bare hands.

Some members of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) and Greenpeace campaigners, who have been demonstrating before the Union Carbide plant since Thursday demanding that internationally accepted hazardous chemical waste management protocols be put in place to clean up the toxic waste, also entered the Carbide premises and began demonstrating when Mr. Gupta was inspecting the site.

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`Steps on to clean up chemical waste in Union Carbide plant'

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