Click here to EnlargeBhopal: It happened so quietly that even the residents of the sprawling slum across the road from Union Carbide's infamous pesticide plant did not notice it.In early July the Madhya Pradesh Government cancelled the land lease of the factory, closed since the gas tragedy in 1984 that has so far claimed 7,000 lives. Now a board on its main gate proclaims that the 62-acre property belongs to the state Industries Department.The overnight transfer has put paid to the hopes of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan which has been running a sustained campaign against contamination of groundwater sources by toxic effluents released by the plant. "This is a naked attempt to bail out Carbide," says its convener Abdul Jabbar Khan.At the centre of the controversy is Gas Relief Minister Hamid Husain Khan, who appeared out of nowhere two months ago to take up cudgels on behalf of Carbide. He denies that the toxic waste released by the plant has polluted the hand pumps in the area and maintains that there is no danger from the chemicals dumped outside the plant.Government notice: hands off CarbideInterestingly, a government document proclaimed in 1996 that "the gas had badly polluted the environmental status of the localities".It is in this background that environmental activists suspect the worst: Carbide offered to hand over the land and the Government readily obliged it. Says Khan: "Politicians take money from Carbide and that is why successive governments have tried to bail it out." The saga of Union Carbide refuses to end.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Aug 10, 1998--- ENDS ---
