Bhopal: Water Samples From 19 Gas Tragedy Affected-Localities Collected

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The members of Supreme Court monitoring committee team on Friday visited 19 Bhopal gas tragedy-affected localities and collected water samples.

In addition to Annu Nagar and Arif Nagar, they inspected Blue Moon Colony, Prem Nagar, Shiv Shakti Nagar, Oriya Basti, Shiv Nagar, Garib Nagar, Nawab Colony where people are reportedly drinking contaminated water either due to broken pipelines or because the pipeline is in the middle of a drain.

According to sources, the water connections have not been provided to people of Phuta Maqbara, Kainchi Chhola, Kalyan Nagar even though the Supreme Court has ordered that Bhopal Municipal Corporation should provide free connection to residents of 42 localities whose houses were built before 2012.

“This report will be given to the chairman of the monitoring committee constituted by Supreme Court. The committee will place its report before the Supreme Court,” Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action said.

In 2004, the Supreme Court had ordered to provide clean water through pipelines in 14 localities located around carbide factory.

In 2012, apart from these 14 settlements, water of 8 more localities was found polluted with carbide poison by Indian Institute of Toxicological Research. According to report of 2018, groundwater pollution has spread to 20 other localities.

On August 30, 2018, the Supreme Court had ordered to provide clean water through pipelines in all the mohallas. It had also asked BMC to lay sewage lines and make water report public every three months.