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Greenpeace boycotts containment operation at Bhopal site
Greenpeace India says that authorities have backed off their commitment to transparency
BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
26 June, 2005: Greenpeace activists present in Bhopal to monitor the containment operation beginning at the Union Carbide site on June 12 were denied access to the site by the Chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) and the Ministry for Gas Relief and Rehabilitation, the organisation
claimed. In a press release, Greenpeace said that the previous night, authorities denied a Greenpeace plea to be allowed to assess the capacity and preparedness of staffers of the firm which has been contracted for the operation, and to ensure that correct protocols were followed at the site. Greenpeace activists objected to this. The organisation said that its activists, who were even prepared to support the state authorities with safety equipment decided to boycott the containment operation completely.
According to Vinuta Gopal, Toxics Campaigner, Greenpeace India, “we have followed due process and sought monitoring permission through every appropriate bureaucratic channel. In response, the authorities have strung us along consistently, and led us to believe that they would ensure transparency during the containment.”
She added: “It is quite apparent that the authorities are miffed with us for our repeated pictorial exposés of workers being exposed to toxic chemicals without even the minimum required Personal Protective Equipment. By backing off from their commitments to us at the last possible minute, they have reconfirmed our worst fears that they are not going to conform to the required standards for such a containment.”
In the early two weeks of this month, Greenpeace and ICJB activists bearing witness at the site have repeatedly pointed at at what they term the "inadequacy and incompetence" of authorities in ensuring workers’ safety, as well as the limitations of the protocols being followed for the proposed containment. The activists had set up a Workers’ Safety Centre outside the factory site to raise awareness amongst the authorities and local population on the need for Personal Protective Equipment for all workers at the site. Greenpeace has also submitted to the government protocols developed by their science unit to ensure that the best international standards are followed for this, the first stage of the containment operation.
Greenpeace has also raised objections to the second and third phases of the proposed clean up process, citing that a landfill is not a solution but will result in the creation of yet another time bomb that will endanger the health of future generations of Bhopal residents.
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