First trial burning of Bhopal gas tragedy waste starts. Officials monitoring air quality; process to last 72 hours.
Bhopal: Amid unprecedented security arrangement in the Industrial town of Pithampur in Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh, the trial burning of toxic waste, associated with the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, on Friday began in the local incineration facility.
Ten tons out of 337 tons of toxic wastes shifted from defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal to Pithampur on January two for disposal will be burnt in the local incineration facility in the first phase on trial basis, as per the directive by Madhya Pradesh high court.
The second and third trial burning of the waste in the Pithampur facility will be carried out on March four and March ten respectively, according to Srinivas Dwivdey, regional officer of Indore branch of Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (PCB).
The status report of the three-trial burning of the toxic waste will be prepared for submission to the high court, he added.
Sources said that three-trial disposal of the waste will set the stage for the destruction of the entire toxic remains of the Union Carbide plant.
“The first trial burning of ten tons of the waste in the incineration plant in Pithampur began at three pm on Friday. The process will last 72 hours”, Indore Divisional Commissioner (IDC) Deepak Singh who along with officials of state PCB and experts visited the incineration plant in Pithampur to monitor the trial disposal of the waste said.
All reports on air quality and other parameters are normal, he added.
According to Dhar district collector Priyank Mishra, the live broadcast of incineration of the waste in the Pithapuram facility has been organized to maintain transparency in the entire process.
Four companies of state armed forces (SAF), nine deputy superintendents of police (DSPs), in-charges of 17 police stations along with intelligence officers and drones have been deployed in the town to maintain law and order, Dhar district superintendent of police Manoj Singh said.
The toxic wastes include the soil from the defunct Union Carbide plant, reactor residue, Sevin (pesticide) residue, naphthol residue, and ‘semi processed residue’, according to Mr Dwivedy.
According to him, the five types of wastes from the defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal will be mixed in appropriate proportion before being burnt at a temperature of 850 degree Celsius in the incineration plant in Pithampur.
The state government has been maintaining that the Union Carbide wastes are fully safe due to lack of methyl isocyanate gas and radioactive particles.
Leakage of deadly methyl isocyanate gas in Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, now closed, on the intervening night of December two-three, 1984 led to killing of 5,479 people, officially.
Thousands of people were also crippled in the incident.
