Bhopal:
Just days after the Supreme Court struck down reopening the Bhopal gas case, Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has suggested that the 350 tonnes of waste at the now defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal be dumped at a laboratory near Nagpur.
He also said that the factory building will be demolished as it poses pollution threat.
"The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has shown interest and we are going to take that interest forward. There will be discussion on this. The laboratory of DRDO is situated 40 kilometres from Nagpur. We will also have to take the Maharashtra government into confidence for burning of this waste," said Jairam Ramesh.
"I am going to write a letter to the Defence Minister A K Antony tomorrow," he said, adding that he would also meet Antony in this regard.
However, Ramesh said, even the DRDO would need two years to dispose of the waste from the Carbide factory, the site of the catastrophic gas leak of 1984.
(
With PTI Inputs)