Toxic waste at Bhopal Gas tragedy site still to be disposed - Audit report
6 Dec, 2013
In order to dispose of safely the toxic waste lying at Union Carbide (Bhopal gas Tragedy) site, the state government of Madhya Pradesh had sanctioned Rs. 2 crore and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had allotted Rs. 80 lakh to the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) for the development of common treatment facility under Common Transport Storage and Disposal Facility (CTSDF) at Peethampur in Dhar district.
However, as per audit conducted by the office of Accountant General it has been found that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed among Ministry of Environment and Forests, MPPCB and Madhya Pradesh Waste Management Project, has not been implemented as yet. The audit report, accessed through the Right to Information (RTI) Act, has also revealed that Rs. 1.07 crore, meant for checking the level of toxicity of 346 metric tonnes of the waste material at the tragedy site, is still lying unused with the state pollution control board.
The senior officers justified that the project could not be implemented because the MoU was not duly signed by the central government.