Selected news

Ban on dumping solid waste in Buddha Nallah

Priyank Bharti, the acting District Magistrate, has passed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), prohibiting people from dumping solid waste in Buddha Nallah. The acting DM said in these orders that information has been given to him that some people are dumping solid waste in Buddha Nallah, which endangers the life and health of the society at large. He said that in the interest of public safety, it is necessary to prevent the dumping of solid waste in the nallah.

Source: Indian Express, New Delhi, July 27, 2007

UPPCB gets tough on medical waste disposal

The Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), along with the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC), is all set to crack the whip on hospitals that do not dispose of bio-medical wastes in accordance with the Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules. The UPPCB team recently visited some city hospitals and found them blatantly violating the norms. Member Secretary, UPPCB, C S Bhatt that private hospitals have been asked to make appropriate arrangements for disposal of bio-medical wastes within a month’s time. “The hospital waste, if not dumped properly, poses a major health hazard. Notices in this regard would soon be issued to hospitals. The LMC has also been asked to take stock of the situation,” said Bhatt. He, however, said, "If hospitals and nursing homes are dumping their wastes along with domestic waste, it is a matter of serious concern. I would gather information from the department and then decide on the course of action,” he said. Meanwhile, an LMC official said, “The LMC incinerator is under-utilised as the volume of the bio-waste is too little. Incinerator works only for five hours a day. It's the responsibility of the NSA and the ZHOs to check the waste being dumped by city hospitals.”

Source: India Express, New Delhi, July 27, 2007

BARC tech turns urban waste into organic manure

Kitchen waste, stale food, split milk, leftovers from hotels and vegetable refuge, which is becoming a huge and mounting burden on urban civic bodies, could no longer be a threat to the urban environment. In fact, it can be a good source of well-balanced organic manure offering excellent top soil material to the farmers, thanks to a technology developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). If segregated well, this waste could do wonders for the farmers practicing organic farming, said Mr. Sharad P. Kale of Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division of BARC. While discussing various arguments and counter arguments on the advantages of organic food, he referred to the concerns that organic food could be less safe than non-organic food as the former increased the risk of exposure to biological contaminants and food-borne diseases.

Source: The Hindu Business Line, New Delhi, July 27, 2007

Climate panel to meet in August; help frame policy

India will move a little closer to deciding its stance on climate change ahead of United Nations –sponsored discussions this December, when an expert scientific committee meet on 6^th August in Delhi. The December meeting in Bali (Indonesia) will decide on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2021. The protocol mandates that its signatories cut emissions in an effort to stem global warming. At the August meeting, the committee, chaired by Mr. R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, will discuss the country’s vulnerability to climate change, identify research areas to asses the impact of human-induced climate change and suggest measures to mitigate this. These will play a critical role in forming India’s stance for the Bali meet.

Source: Hindustan Times, New Delhi, July 27, 2007

Badal Calls For Time-bound Pollution Monitoring Policy

Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal on July 25, 2007 called for formulation of a comprehensive policy to check the pollution of rivers in the state. He asked the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) to frame and implemented guidelines in this regard and ensure regular and time bound monitoring of the anti-pollution steps. Presiding over the meeting here in Chandigarh on July 24, 2007, Badal asked the pollution board officials to install sewage treatment plants in the state. The Chief Minister asked the Chief Secretary to hold a joint meeting of the industries, local bodies and PPCB to work out the modalities to control the menace of pollution effectively because the effluents discharged in the river and drains are not treated properly thus posing a threat to both aquatic life as well as humans.

Source: Financial World, Chandigarh, July 25, 2007

Toxics Alert An environment news bulletin

Issue 6
July 23, 2007

F E A T U R E

Think before you make the switch to CFL!

If there is one product that has come to symblolise the ease with which an individual consumer can make a contribution in towards reducing global warming, it is the Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL). But a growing section of experts and activists have dared to question the wisdom of a mass shift to CFLs without taking into account its dependence on mercury, writes Parvinder Singh and says there is more to it than a mere change of bulbs.

Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org/feature-view.php?id=6

N E W S

EU move on banning mercury trade welcomed

Delhi-based Toxics Link has urged the Indian Government to take a cue from the recent move against mercury by the European Union Parliament through a resolution seeking to ban trade of the heavy metal by 2010 and take some strong steps for replacement and phasing out of mercury here.

Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org/news-view.php?id=28

Metro Go Underground: Demand RWAs

Citizens of Delhi have been voicing concern over the damage that is being caused to the city trees and environment for the mega transport projects, like Metro and High Capacity Bus System. Tired of waiting on the sidelines, residents from some of the residential colonies are now organising themselves to push for a people and environment-friendly implementation of these projects.

Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org/news-view.php?id=29

Waste water irrigation make vegetables toxic: Study

Vegetables grown in semi-urban areas, which use industrial waste water for irrigation, have high levels of heavy metals such as lead, which is neurotoxic brain and cadmium, which can cause cancer, according to a new study by Indian and UK scientists.

Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org/news-view.php?id=30

Demand for organic cotton growing: India emerges as largest producer

Global consumers are increasingly becoming environmentally conscious and this is pushing the demand for organic and eco-friendly products, particularly textiles. Demand for organic cotton is accelerating with brands and retailers continuing responding to consumer choices by increasing the use of organic cotton for manufacturing textiles.

Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org/news-view.php?id=31

Government wants apex court's green bench disbanded

The Union Government has urged the Supreme Court it to wind up its Green Bench on the ground that it has outlived its utility and is hurting the objective of preservation of forests.The Bench's orders on the basis of advice given by lay persons have contributed in accentuating poverty, social unrest and a spurt in Naxal activities in major states, the Centre said in what marked an unprecedented display of belligerence.

P O L I C Y

Single-window system for environment clearances for builders being planned

The Union Government is reportedly planning to introduce as single window system for environmental clearance for builders. This will reduce the time required for the process to just three months.

Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org/policy-view.php?id=7

U P D A T E

Landfills not a solution to Delhi's urban waste crisis: DPCC

With all the three existing landfills in the National Capital Territory of Delhi running out of capacity and the State Government announcing new sites for fresh landfills, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), a nodal environmental body for the Capital, today said landfills were not a solution for the current Municipal Solid Waste crisis in the city.

Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org/update-view.php?id=6

P A R T N E R S

Clearance to Commonwealth Games Village illegal: Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan

A grouping of citizens and civil society organisations, Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan (YJA), has alleged that the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has gone ahead with the plans to build the Commonwealth Games Village on the Yamuna riverbed overriding serious concerns expressed by the Expert Appraisal Committee of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) that studied the proposal in 2006.

Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org/partner-view.php?id=5

O P I N I O N

In this section, our readers and users can express their views and opinions in whatever way they chose to, through write-ups, pictures, web-posters or even clips, on issues related to toxics and environment. All you will need to do is send an email at editor (AT) toxicslink.org and we will post it routinely at http://toxicslink.blogspot.com/

--ENDS --

Insight into missing dimension of Nandigram

Insight into missing dimension of Nandigram

Staff Reporter

Photo: R.V. Moorthy

N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, releasing a documentary film CD on Nandigram at Banga Sanskriti Bhavan in New Delhi on Friday .Also seen are filmmaker Prakash Kumar Ray and Mala Hashmi.

NEW DELHI: For a directorial debut, Prakash Kumar Ray has been valiant enough to choose Nandigram killings and violence as a subject matter. He reasons it was important for him as a person to find out what really went wrong in the rural area and why the popular Left Government in West Bengal was in the news for the wrong reasons.

Prakash’s attempt to see Nandigram from close quarters has resulted in the documentary, Nandigram: Aasman Ki Talaash Mein, released by the Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, N. Ram, here on Friday. The film trie s to explore the events at Nandigram before and after March 14 — the day when 14 persons were killed in police firing and subsequent violence — and “see through the anti-Left campaign” in West Bengal.

The film captures the run-up to the March 14 tragedy; how the Trinamool Congress-backed anti-land acquisition platform, Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee, forced innocent people — several of them Communist Party of India (Marxist) cadres — to leave their homes and property; how the CPI(M) activists were attacked and killed; and how some of the complaints of people missing were fabricated.

“The Left has been helming the State for the past so many years. It has been a popular Government. So when the March 14 tragedy occurred, I could not believe what was happening in West Bengal. I knew I had to be in that area to find out the facts,” Prakash, a scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said after the screening.

“So when I decided to go there, I thought of taking my camera and other equipments along. Three of us toured the area from March 29 to April 6 to get a first-hand report. Of course, we used deception and were under cover all the while,” he added.

Calling it an “exemplary effort,” Mr. Ram complimented the director on “successfully breaking through the barrier and giving us an insight into the missing dimension.”

“It is quite an achievement. We need to put this in the right perspective. Many of us have been bothered about the March 14 tragedy but there was always something missing, a huge part, from the whole story that did not make it to the mainstream media,” he said.

“The film captures the complex situation and makes a powerfully successful attempt to fill some good part of the gap. What is shocking is the manufacture of consent for the indictment of the Left Government in West Bengal and demonisation of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and the CPI(M). All kinds of people landed there without any thought about the implications of what they were doing. There was just one-sided grief, completely ignoring the plight of 3,500 people who were forced to become internal refugees,” Mr. Ram said.