By IANS,
Bhopal : The Madhya Pradesh government has removed 40 tonnes of chemical residues from the premises of the now defunct Union Carbide pesticide plant, which led to the world’s worst industrial disaster in 1984.
These chemical residues, in the form of lime sledge, were lying in the plant premises ever since the gas leak tragedy occurred on the intervening night of Dec 2-3, 1984 when lethal gas spewed out of the Union Carbide plant killing over 3,000 people and maiming several thousand others for life, said an official statement Tuesday.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court March 19, 2008 issued orders to initiate the process of chemical residues’ removal.
The chemical residues have been disposed of in Peethampur near Indore jointly by the Madhya Pradesh Waste Management Project and Ramco Enviro Engineers India, said the official statement.
This information was given to Gas Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Babulal Gaur by his department’s director J.T. Ekka during a visit to the plant premises.
Institutions like the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) had said in their report after conducting a thorough study that the chemical residues lying in the plant premises were not hazardous for human life, according to Ekka.