HC orders US waste out of India

Instead of Waste Paper, Hazardous Waste Had Made Way To Tuticorin Port Chennai: Forty containers of hazardous municipal waste imported from the US and rotting at Tuticorin Port for three years has been ordered out of India. A division bench of the Madras High Court on Friday rapped ITC Limited for importing the “undesired cargo”. The court directed the company to clear out the waste at its own cost and slapped a litigation cost of Rs 50,000. The judges also asked the Centre to initiate civil and criminal proceedings against officials who “masterminded such illegal ideas” within a period of 12 weeks. The bench comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice S Tamilvanan, dismissing a writ appeal of ITC on Friday, said: “The cargo is municipal waste shipped to India, which cannot be sold or allowed to be disposed of in any manner in India, since it will cause much danger to Mother Nature, as has been correctly observed by the Customs Department and the Pollution Control Board.” ITC sourced the material from USbased Evergreen Specialities which was meant to supply “mixed wastepaper” in August 2005. But on examination, the Customs found that the consignment contained plastic carry bags, pet bottles, used clothes, shoes, metal cans and “dirty liquid emitting foul smell”. Officials said the hazardous municipal waste had characteristics of “eco-toxic and infectious substances”. The US company then conceded that the consignment was sent to India by mistake and ITC shipped it to Ajman in UAE, only to have it returned with a warning. After it returned to Tuticorin, a single judge bench passed a consent order and appointed a committee to inspect and suggest a solution. However, in November 2007, when the committee recommended re-export of 35 containers to the US, the company preferred to appeal, leading to Friday’s judgement. “Having received an undesired cargo from Evergreen, ITC should have shunted it back to the US only,” why did ITC sent the cargo to Ajman without even informing the US company, the judges asked. The division bench also flayed the company for making an about-turn after the committee’s recommendations. The bench said: “It is really painful, rather pathetic, to note that developed countries are searching for dumping yards in developing countries to dump municipal waste to enjoy a pollutionfree surroundings in their countries.” Slamming ITC for negligence, the judges asked it to de-stuff the garbage and hand over empty containers to a Tuticorin-based company.

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