Delay in hazardous waste disposal is abuse of right to health of Bhopal gas tragedy survivors: NHRC chief
The Hindu
NHRC chairperson justice Arun Kumar Mishra said, "Approximately 3,000 people died. Around 336 tonnes of hazardous waste is still lying on the premises."
Tonnes of hazardous waste is lying at the site of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy and delay in its disposal contaminates groundwater and soil which is a "direct abuse" of the right to health of survivors and locals, NHRC chairperson justice Arun Kumar Mishra (retd.) said on December 10.
Addressing a Human Rights Day event in New Delhi hosted by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), he said that one outfall of globalisation is the concentration of wealth in transnational companies and a few countries.
"For calamities caused by industrial disasters, transnational enterprises' responsibilities have to be well defined," the NHRC chief asserted.
He cited the Bhopal gas tragedy which took place at a plant of a global company in Bhopal in 1984, considered one of the world's worst industrial disasters. The multinational company, Union Carbide, faced global criticism following the tragedy.
Mr. Mishra said, "Approximately 3,000 people died. Around 336 tonnes of hazardous waste is still lying on the premises." "The property changed hands. Delay in the disposal of such hazardous waste by a multinational company contaminates groundwater and soil and is a direct abuse of the right to health of the survivors and residents of the area," he added.
While residents are worried over deaths due to diarrhoea in Vijayawada, officials still grapple to find the root cause. Contaminated drinking water supplied by VMC officials is the reason, insist people in the affected areas, but officials insist that efforts are on to identify the disease and that those with symptoms other than diarrhoea too are visiting the health camps.