Plants used to remove hazardous waste ‘It's one of the most cost-effective methods' Rs. 20 crore to be spent on bio-remediation projects this year When the government's oversight panel meets in Bhopal on May 25 to examine various options to dispose of the 350 tonnes of toxic waste lying at the Union Carbide plant, and the million tonnes of contaminated soil at the site of the 1984 gas leak disaster, the novel idea...

The Supreme Court turned down on Wednesday a government demand to re-open the case into the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy and hand harsher sentences to seven men convicted of negligence. The court dismissed CBI's curative petition seeking restoration of stringent charges against Bhopal tragedy accused saying it was filed 14 years after the 1996 judgment, which was only a prima facie view of evidence that had come on record till that...

A transparent assessment of the costs and risks associated with India's ambitious nuclear plans must be made before any ground is broken at Jaitapur or elsewhere. You really have to hand it to the nuclear industry. In any other sphere of the economy, a major industrial disaster is likely to have adverse, long-term financial consequences for the company or companies whose product or activity was involved in the accident, regardless of...

Even as the Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday two curative petitions filed by the CBI and the Union government in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, survivors have pointed out infirmities in the petition filed by the Centre. “It is just a face-saving exercise by the Government of India against the international criticism it faced last year,” says Abdul Jabbar of the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sangathan. “The petition overlooks incidents...

From the Prime Minister down, WikiLeaks has exposed the rotten state of the world's largest democracy for all to see. Food prices become intolerable for the poor. Protests against corruption paralyse Parliament. Then a series of American diplomatic cables released by the WikiLeaks exposes a brazenly mendacious and venal ruling class; the head of government adored by foreign business people and journalists loses his moral authority, turning into a lame duck. This...