mediavigil
Colin Veitch, Owner of Blue Lady & CEO, Norwegian Cruise Liner, subsidiary of Star Cruise Ltd
Veitch towed the Asbestos & PCBs laden Blue Lady (SS Norway) to Bremerhaven, Germany that was headed for Singapore to be reused as a floating hotel but ended up in Port Klang, Malaysia on October 14, 2005. In Malaysia, Veitch left Malaysia by informing them that the ship is going to Dubai for repairs. Instead, it reached Alang, India on humanitarian grounds after it was refused entry in Bangladesh. The departure of this dubious ship, SS Norway (now SS Blue Lady, SS France) on May 23, 2005, triggered a continuing criminal offense that persists to this day. This company is indicted of Environmental Crime by US Justice Department. He has unlawfully breached Basel Convention and, through dishonest subterfuges managed to get the Blue Lady (SS Norway) to Alang for dismantling amid rumours of paid-offs to high officials in India to allow its dismantling. But so far the ship remains caught up in legal wrangles. Colin Veitch is attempting to escape huge decontamination cost by dumping it in India. It is estimated that over 17 million Euro would be needed to decontaminate a portion of the asbestos but in Alang workers and villagers are going to be exposed because the ship has not been pre-cleaned. Attempts to dispose of the vessel in Bangladesh early 2006 failed.
Stat Counter
Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Chief Justice of India
In March 2007, Bhagvatsinh Haubha Gohil, Sarpanch of Sosiya, Tehsil Talaja filed an application on behalf of 12 Sarpanchs and 30, 000 people who live within the distance of 1 to 25 Kms. from the ship breaking yard at Alang before Justice Balakrishnan bench who listed the matter for hearing before the Justice Pasayat and Justice Kapadia bench in the Blue Lady case but the same was not heard till date. These people largely depend on sea food that is under threat from ship-breaking. The ship in question contains large amount of asbestos that poses huge risk of exposure to the villagers. Their application is yet to be heard although final orders were passed on 11th September, 2007. Justice Balakrishnan took over as the Chief Justice in December, 2006.
Prof. M G K Menon wants Asbestos laden Blue Lady sent back to Malyasia or Germany
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who holds the charge of Ministry of Environment & Forests and Department of Atomic Energy received an honorary science degree from Prof Menon, President of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata on 24 Dec. 2006
Sanjay Parikh, Lawyer, Supreme Court and and a civil rights activist
He has been responsible for the enactment of Hazardous Wastes Management Rules. He has been arguing the hazardous wastes case that includes the matter of ship-breaking since 1995
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Member of Parliament, Jodhpur, Rajasthan & Supreme Court lawyer
Singhvi is former Additional Solicitor General and is representing Ship Recycling Industries Association (SRIA), India seeking to ensure indiscriminate dumping and entry of contaminated ships in India. SRIA has illegally beached 30 foreign ships without pre-cleaning. Winner of "Money Can Buy You Law" award, Singhvi is the spokesperson of the Indian National Congress. He straddles the two worlds of law and politics. He also represents Dow Chemicals company in the Bhopal Gas Leak disaster case for which he got Mir Zafar award. Documents show the legal advice given by Singhvi saying that Dow could not be held responsible for the disaster and also not be held liable for any alleged contamination and consequent cleaning up of the Bhopal site. This advice forms part of the file in Prime Minister's Office.
Gopal Subramaniam, Additional Solicitor General, an opponent of Citizen's Right to Information
Banned in 45 countries, asbestos is safe in India. Compensation for asbetsos victims is not possible. Hazardous Waste Dumping in India is fine because asbestos waste in structure is not hazardous. He alongwith Mukul Rohatagi, former Additional Solicitor General argued that asbestos waste is banned in India but that applies to 'virgin' asbestos waste!! This position of the Environment Ministry was supported by Dr.H.N.Saiyyed, a member of Technical Experts Committeee. Subramaniam was compelled to partially admit the presence of radioactive material on Blue Lady.
Meena Gupta, Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests
She has to undo the acts of ommission and commission of her predecessors.
Justice Arijit Pasayat
Contaminated Ships are banned but Blue Lady (SS Norway) is irreversible!!
Prof. Menon, a renowned scientist and former Union Science & Technology Minister
Chairman, High Power Committee on Hazardous Wastes wrote to Chief Justice of India seeking compliance with Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal in Blue Lady matter
Dr Virendra Misra, Head, Ecotoxicology, Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC), Lucknow
Dealing with Blue Lady, as a member of Technical Experts Commitee (TEC) on Ship-breaking, Misra wrote, "Presence of radioactive materials should be ascertained well in advance. Though it is mentioned in the report (of Priya Blue Industries Ltd, Gujarat Maritime Board and Gujarat Pollution Control Board) that radioactive material is not available, in my opinion there is possibility of the presence of radioactive materials due to existence of liquid level indicators and smoke detectors on the ship." This was ignored by TEC's chairman, Prodipto Ghosh & then Union Environment Secretary. Misra is with ITRC, a constituent laboratory of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India. Blue Lady still has radioactive material at 1088 places. Misra is Chief Editor, Journal of Ecophysiology and Occupational Health. This case exemplies how IAS officers of Environment Ministry pay no heed to scientific opinion in their megalomania.
Justice S H Kapadia
Blue Lady (SS Norway) beached Illegally in Alang but beaching is Irreversible so accept the fait accompli!! The bench in its order in the Blue Lady/Hazardous Waste case dated September 11, 2007 had this to say citing the order in the forest case: The concept of "balance" under the principle of proportionality applicable in the case of sustainable development is lucidly explained by Pasayat, J. in the judgment of this Court in the case of T.N. Godavarman Thirumalpad v. Union of India and Ors. reported in (2002) 10 SCC 606 vide para 35 which reads as under: "35. It cannot be disputed that no development is possible without some adverse effect on the ecology and environment, and the projects of public utility cannot be abandoned and it is necessary to adjust the interest of the people as well as the necessity to maintain the environment. A balance has to be struck between the two interests. Where the commercial venture or enterprise would bring in results which are far more useful for the people, difficulty of a small number of people has to be bypassed. The comparative hardships have to be balanced and the convenience and benefit to a larger section of the people has to get primacy over comparatively lesser hardship." The above paragraphs indicate that while applying the concept of "sustainable development" one has to keep in mind the "principle of proportionality" based on the concept of balance. It is an exercise in which we have to balance the priorities of development on one hand and environmental protection on the other hand.
Prodipto Ghosh, Chairman Technical Experts Committee on Hazardous Wastes relating to Ship-breaking
Asbestos kills Europeans, Australians, Japanese but it is safe for Indians! He concluded that Blue Lady does not have radioactive material without inspection. Although he was Environment Secretary he was appointed by RK Vaish, the Basel Focal Point to Chair the Committee. Blue Lady report was submitted to the Supreme Court by Ghosh. In a classic case of conflict of interest he chaired the committee although the acts of his ministry's acts of ommission and commission are the subject matter of this Hazardous Wastes case. He was saddened by the recall of Le Clemenceau and Blue Lady's fate is his response to the French court & the European laws.
Narendra Modi, Chief Minister, Gujarat at the 52nd meeting of National Development Council
The Import Duty on Ships, which are coming here for ship-breaking, is levied @ 5%, which has affected the ship-breaking industry negatively. As per September 2006 guidelines of the Ministry of Environment, Government of India, instead of State Governments' clearance, prior permission from Government of India has introduced for Ship breaking. This is retrograde step for the process of industrialization. Port led development should be integrated with ship breaking, ship repairing and shipbuilding. It could be a major area of trade during the 11th Plan, which however, has not been mentioned in the Approach Paper. He made this statement on 9th December 2006. The saddest part is that he supports use of asbestos, a known carcinogen. Gujarat is the only state which have proven cases of asbestos victims. Gujarat High Court is seized with incurable & fatal asbestos disease compensation case. The compensation is a meagre amount of Rs 1 lakh as per a Supreme Court order. Evidence received through Right to Information shows how National Institute of Occupational Health that certifies the victims have joined hands with the asbestos industry.
Basudev Acharya, Senior Parliamentarian
Blue Lady (SS Norway)'s entry in our territory violates India's sovereignty
Rajendrasinh Ghanshyamsinh, BJP MP, Bhavnagar, Gujarat
Not once did he raise the issue of ban on asbestos and safe ship breaking that can only be done after decontamination of the hazardous substance and a mandatory rule must be framed to compel the owners of the ship to clean their ships and ensure that tanks are gas free for hot work. With the prices of steel, the prime extract from the ship, varying on a day-to-day basis, ship breakers often flout norms to sell the scrap when prices go up. All the norms are ignored to the peril of Alang villagers, migrant Bhojpuri and Oriya workers and environment.
Prabhunath Singh, Chairman, Parliamentary Petitions Committee
He deprecated the repeated stand taken by Environment Ministry on Blue Lady that since no hazardous wastes has been allowed on board as cargo, there is no violation of Supreme Court directions in a report to Parliament
Kalraj Mishra, Member, Parliamentary Commitee on Industry
Blue Lady is 50 times more toxic than Le Clemenceau. It should be sent back
Victims of 'Development' Fundamentalism
Sen's book Development as Freedom is mentioned by Justice Pasayat and Justice Kapadia in the Blue Lady case to invoke, "The concept of "balance" under the principle of proportionality" and argue that "...A balance has to be struck between the two interests. Where the commercial venture or enterprise would bring in results which are far more useful for the people, difficulty of a small number of people has to be bypassed. The comparative hardships have to be balanced and the convenience and benefit to a larger section of the people has to get primacy over comparatively lesser hardship". Some of the chapters of this book were delivered as lectures to World Bank staff at the behest of James Wolfensohn. The court orders reads, "This concept of balancing is given importance by Dr. Amartya Sen" in this book. This interpretation and citation of Sen does not appear to be relevant and correct. Sen describes five requirements that should ideally work together in order to bring true development. This freedom is “seen in an "instrumental" perspective. These include political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees and protective security. The indisputable fact is that ship-breaking workers of Alang and 30, 000 villagers have no secuirty from chemical exposure.
Arrested in Spain, PCB & asbestos eladen, 32 years old ship anchored in Alang on October 27, 2007
Arrested in Spain, this PCBs & asbestos eladen, 32 years old ship anchored in Alang on October 27, 2007. Ms Katharina Kummer Piery, UNEP official wrote to R K Vaish , Joint Secretary, Hazardous Substances Management Division, Ministry of Environment & Forests concerning the vessel on October 2, 2007 warning him about its possible entry in Indian waters. Her letter suggests that the vessel left Spanish territorial waters by informing the Spanish authorities it is going to Romania for refurbishment and instead it came to Alang. As per Basel Convention, such misrepresentation is part of illegal traffic. The letter suggests that the vessel left Spanish territorial waters by informing the Spanish authorities it is going to Romania for refurbishment and instead it came to Alang. As per Basel Convention, such misrepresentation is part of illegal traffic. The ship has not complied with the Court's orders of Septmber 6, 2007 order and 14th October, 2003 that endorsed the Basel Convention and deemed it as part of right to life. Ship breaking activity must operate under the clear mandate for the decontamination (pre-cleaning) of ships of their hazardous substances including asbestos, radioactive material, waste oils, gases and both solid and liquid PCB contaminated material and any other substances covered by the Basel Convention prior to imports for breaking. The ship's port of registry is Moroni, capital of Comoros that is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, located off the eastern coast of Africa. In a letter to Indian Department of Shipping, the Spanish Ministry de Fomento (Ministry of Public Work & Economy) has corroborated that the ship MV Al Arabia (formerly Aqaba Express, Beni Ansar) is in illegal traffic. The letter informing the Indian authorities that the ship left the Spanish port of Almeria on 31st August 2007 to go to Constanza Romania for reparation work was sent on 15 November 2007. As per Basel Convention, such fraudulent misrepresentation is part of illegal traffic.
'Global Constitutionalism' of Europe allows asbestos exposure of Alang workers
Lord Goldsmith, former Attorney General, UK. He stepped down alongwith Tony Blair. He talks of principle of proportionality and balance and is quoted in Blue Lady (SS Norway) order. Although the matter relates to violation of several International and European environmental laws, when approached to comment on the violation, he said, "it is clear to me that this is a matter for the Indian Courts and I do not believe it would be appropriate for me to offer any comment." European laws seem to have changed after Le Clemenceu verdict by French court even then the Indian court was seized with the matter. Germany and Europe allowed violation of Basel Convention and its laws by permitting illegal traffic of Star Cruise's ship. Thus, shipowners escape decontamination cost in Europe. This is waste colonialism.
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