‘No objection to ship’

According to Raja, ships that contain asbestos in their structure as opposed to cargo do not fall under the Basel Convention. Therefore, legally there is no problem in letting it come. He said that the country has required facilities and infrastructure needed for breaking down a ship in an ‘‘environmentally sound’’ manner. The country has its own system of checking if a ship contained hazardous material. The Central Pollution Control Board would be involved in the process.

‘‘We will physically examine the ship for presence of any hazardous waste as cargo and submit a report to the Supreme Court before it hears the case,’’ said Raja speaking to journalists.

In fact, the Ministry is not opposed to ship breaking as an industry. Naresh Dayal, Additional Secretary in the Environment Ministry, said that the ship breaking industry provided valuable raw material for country. The minister also said the Union government had not received any communication from the Egyptian government about the ship. The process involved communication between the importers and the exporters of the ship. In this case, the importer is Shree Ram Vessels from Gujarat.

The Egyptian government had asked information from the French and the Indian governments, and the French had sent outdated documents from 2004 which included no-objection certificates from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board and the Maritime Board to get clearance.

There was nothing sent from India to counter or update the information submitted by the French. This is after the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee recommended to the Supreme Court that the ship not be allowed to enter India’s territorial waters without clarity on the exact amount of asbestos on board. They had also asked for independent verification of the asbestos present. The SCMC is to meet on January 20 and the Supreme Court will hear the case on February 13 when the judgement whether the ship is to be allowed in India for break down would be decided. Till then, all previous permissions stand cancelled. Government’s attitude towards the ship has helped build consensus against the ship entering country. ‘‘This attitude of the government ignores the plight of the migrant, marginalised workers who work in Alang,’’ said Karat.

The PM assured her that he would speak to the concerned Ministry on the issue. Tomorrow, Greenpeace is organising a massive protest outside the Ministry of Environment and Forests against their stand on the issue.

New twist in the tale

New Delhi: The Egyptian Parliament has decided to act tough. Despite the permission for Clemenceau to pass through the Suez Canal, there is another twist in the tale. Parliamentary Speaker Fathi Sorour, quoted by the state news agency MENA, said information about the case would be referred to Parliament’s Health and Environment Committee to prepare a report on it. He informed the Parliament on the Indian Supreme court’s stand. He warned that if the government did not await the final opinion of the People’s Assembly (parliament) on this matter it would be liable to parliamentary questioning. Under international and Egyptian law, Egypt can stop ships passing through the canal if they are carrying toxic waste that has not been properly —ENS