Incinerator out of order since two years
The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has told the Madhya Pradesh High Court in an affidavit that the DRDO facility at Nagpur has neither the requisite infrastructure nor the storage facilities for handling toxic waste from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. What's more, the incinerator at the facility has been non-functional for the past two years.
The affidavit said that under present conditions it is not possible for MPCB to authorise DRDO to go ahead with the disposal of the toxic waste since it will not be possible for the Board to oversee the work.
MPCB’s statement has proved to be a major emparassment to the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE) at Gwalior which had claimed that the Nagpur facility has the required infrastructure to handle the waste.
MPCB also informed the court that samples of toxic waste collected by it, as per court instructions have been sent to a nationally accredited laboratory for analysis. The court has granted MPCB time till September 22 to file a comprehensive report.
A Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court had on July 19 stalled the transfer of toxic waste from Bhopal to Maharashtra amid protests by residents and activists. (Read: Bhopal’s toxic waste raises stink)
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