ENVIRONMENT - 2004 - Indian Social Institute

said: "In view of the challenges represented by health-care waste and its management, WHO activities
are oriented by four major policies. These are preventing health risks associated with
exposure to health-care waste for both health workers and public, supporting global efforts to
reduce the amount of noxious emissions released into the atmosphere to defer the onset of
global changes, supporting the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
that aims to protect both human and the environment from the adverse effects of POPs and
reducing exposure to toxic pollutants associated with the combustion process through the
promotion of appropriate practices for high temperature." (The Hindu 16.9.04)
24 TH September
Buy and carry in biodegradable bags, says govt (9)
NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 23: UNABLE to sell the environment-friendly bio-degradable plastic
bags to the Capital, the MCD has joined hands with the environment department of Delhi Government
to enusre these are adopted by shops and big showrooms in the city. The environment
department has been asked to formulate a law making use of these bags by shop-owners and
retail outlets mandatory. The government had recently got manufacturers to make these bags
available in the market. MCD Commissioner Rakesh Mehta had introduced the concept last year.
These bags have a high starch content which assists in their disintegration. They have a shelf-life
of three months after which they start decomposing. The bags were to be introduced in the
bazaar in March this year and the MCD was to make their use by residents compulsory. "During
the various Bhagidari workshops, however, residents started complaining that the cost of these
bags was exorbitant (Rs 42-Rs 50 each). It was they who proposed that shopowners be made to
keep these bags for giving out their goods to customers," says Mehta. (Indian Express 24.9.04)
26 TH September
Pharma City sans environmental clearance (9)
HYDERABAD, SEPT. 25. Even as the Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has laid the
foundation stone for the Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City at Parawada, near Visakhapatnam,
environmentalists have expressed surprise at the "undue haste" shown in clearing the project and
announcing the foundation-laying programme before obtaining the formal "consent for establishment"
(CFE) from the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board, "making a mockery" of the
environmental laws. Going by the scale of the project, spread over 2200 acres with an initial cost
of Rs. 276 crores, for accommodating over 120 bulk drug and pharma units and its pollution load,
they contend that environmental clearance should have been obtained from the Union
Environment and Forests Ministry. Such a clearance is mandatory for 32 categories of industries,
including bulk drug, under the Union Ministry's notification dated January 1, 1994. The argument
that it does not require one, as it fell under Special Economic Zone, is specious, as such
exemption is not for water intensive highly polluting industries. The project was cleared bulldozing
the Environmental Public Hearing when the local people opposed it. (The Hindu 26.9.04)
A long march against Coca-Cola (9)
JAIPUR, SEPT. 25. Social activists, civil rights groups and concerned citizens today began a long
march to Kaladera village, 40 km from here, demanding immediate closure of the bottling plant of
Coca-Cola as it was "indiscriminately exploiting" ground water. Sarvodaya leader and freedom
fighter Siddharaj Dhaddha, the Lok Sabha member and Editor of Math-rubhumi, M.P. Veerendra
Kumar, and former MP, Surendra Mohan, were among those who attended a public meeting
marking the start of the march. The participants alleged that the plant's activities had led to a
sharp decline in the water table in and around Kaladera. A small group of Coca-Cola factory
employees and distributors from here and nearby areas staged a "silent protest" at the venue of
the meeting, Gandhi Circle, describing the agitation as a "farce aimed at depriving us of our
livelihood". The police were present in large numbers to prevent any confrontation between the
two groups. The march that began today will cover the distance between Jaipur and Kaladera in
three days — holding demonstrations, public meetings and street plays in villages — and reach
the plant on Tuesday morning. The Jan Sangharsh Samiti, spearheading the agitation, plans to
organise a demonstration in front of the Coca-Cola plant. (The Hindu 26.9.04)