Violation of Supreme Court's orders of October 14, 2003
May 3 and July 6 2012 with impunity, sets a bad precedent Role of concerned environment ministry official should
be investigated
༯span>
New Delhi: Concluding
the 15 page jugdment of July 30, 2012 in the matter of end of life US ship Exxon Valdez, Justice Altamas Kabir headed bench of
Supreme Court has directed ༯span>that
"...in all future cases of a similar nature, the concerned authorities
shall strictly comply with the norms laid down in the Basel Convention or any
other subsequent provisions that may be adopted by the Central Government in
aid of a clean and pollution free maritime environment, before permitting entry
of any vessel suspected to be carrying toxic and hazardous material into Indian
territorial waters." The fact remains that in the case of Exxon
Valdez (now named MV Oriental N, IMO No. 8414520), Basel Convention has been
violated. ༯span>The judgment is attached.
༯span>
While permitting
beaching and dismantling of the end of life ship in question, the July 30, 2012
judgment reads: "Such relief would, of course, be subject to compliance
with all the formalities as required by the judgments and orders passed by this
Court on 14th October, 2003, 6th September, 2007 and 11th September, 2007 in
the Writ Petition."
༯span>
The
fact is Hon'ble Court order of October 14, 2003 reads: "At the
international level, India should participate in international meetings on
ship-breaking at the level of the International Maritime Organisation and the
Basel ConventionⳠTechnical Working Group with a clear mandate for the
decontamination of ships of their hazardous substances such as asbestos, waste
oil, gas and PCBs, prior to export to India for breaking. Participation should
include from Central and State level.伯span>
༯span>This has not been complied with nor has
it been claimed that it has been complied with. ༯span>༯span>༯span>
༯span>
It is quite strange
that the Hon'ble Court refrained from referring to their May 3, 2012 order in matter
of this end-of-life ship and July 6, 2012 judgment on the issue of shipbreaking.
The
relevant part of the May 3 order which required compliance with
Convention,༯span>reads:࠼i>だcopy (of the
application) has been provided to Mr. Ashok Bhan, learned senior counsel
appearing for the Union of India and Mr. T.S. Doabia, learned senior counsel,
who submits that he is appearing on behalf of the Ministry of Shipping,
Government of India. Both, Mr. Bhan and Mr. Doabia, are requested to take
instructions on the statements made in the interlocutory application and to
inform this Court as to the steps being taken to prevent the ship berthing in
any of the ports in India, without following the conditions indicated in
the Basel Convention.伯i>
There is manifest non-compliance
with this order. In fact no where in the affidavits of either the shipbreaker
or the agencies like Ministry of Environment & Forests, Gujarat Pollution
Control Board and Gujarat Maritime Board has it been claimed that they have
complied with the Convention. ༯span>༯span>༯span>༯span>
༯span>
Hon⢬e Court in the judgment dated 06.07.2012 has
considered the issue of ship breaking and observed: ㅔhe
question of ship breaking and distribution of hazardous wastes are being
considered separately in the contempt proceedings, in these proceedings we
expect and reiterate that the directions contained in the BASEL Convention have
to be strictly followed by all the concerned players, before a vessel is
allowed to enter Indian territorial waters and beach at any of the beaching
facilities in any part of the Indian coast-line. In case of breach of the
conditions, the authorities shall impose the penalties contemplated under the
municipal laws of India.䠠༯span>
༯span>
Para 8 of the July 6, 2012 judgment reads: 㔨is
Court observed that the ship breaking operations could not be allowed to
continue, without strictly adhering to all precautionary principles, CPCB
guidelines and upon taking the requisite safeguards, which have been dealt with
extensively in the report of the High Powered Committee, which also included
the working conditions of the workmen.䠔his has not been complied with.
༯span>
The July 30,
2012 order reads: "It is made clear that if any toxic wastes embedded in
the ship structure are discovered during its dismantling, the concerned authorities
shall take immediate steps for their disposal at the cost of the owner of the
vessel, M/s Best Oasis Ltd., or its nominee or nominees." This is
inconsistent with Court's earlier order, Basel Convention and the affidavits of
GMB and CPCB.
༯span>
Hon⢬e Court's order
of 20th April 2000 referred to the affidavit filed by CPCB, reads:䗩th
regard to ship-breaking at Alang, affidavit of Shri Lalit Kapur on behalf of
the CPCB has been filed. In response to that, the petitioner has filed an affidavit
on 15th April, 2000 supporting the stand taken by CPCB. The
contention is that steps should be taken to ensure that ships which came to
India for ship-breaking should be properly decontaminated before they are
exported to India. This aspect is being considered by the HPC. As such, the
Union of India should forward to the HPC the affidavit of Shri Lalit Kapur as
well as the said comments of the petitioner filed by way of an affidavit of Ms.
Shalini Bhutani for consideration and report by the HPC. Needful be done by the
Union of India within four weeks from today.䠼/span>
༯span>
This has not
been done nor has it been claimed that it has been done and still the shiphas
been allowed. CPCB is an agency of the Ministry of Environment & Forests.
The role of the Environment Ministry official needs probe because he appears to have
misled the Hon'ble Court. On the date of final hearing on July 23, 2012, CPCB
consul had underlined the violation of the Court' order by the ship in question.
Even counsul for Custioms underlined that hazardous material in ship has not
been verified and certified. It appears that the official in question
misreprested facts to MoEF counsel. ༯span>ToxicsWatch
Alliance (TWA) demands probe in the role of this official because his role
since the days of Le Clemenceau and several toxic ships has been questionable. ༯span>༯span>༯span>
༯span>
The submission
of Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) before the Hon'ble Court's High Powered
Committee on hazardous toxic wastes categorically stated that a ship should be
allowed to sail only when they are made completely hazardous/toxic free from
every corner of the structure of the ship before being auctioned. The stand
taken by GMB reads: ༯span>㎯w as far as
hazardous/toxic wastes contained in the structure of empty ships are concerned,
the same should be removed by the exporting countries as such wastes are banned
under Basel Convention...Here, India is a non-member of OECD therefore it must be clarified here that it
is the duty of OECD countries that they should allow to sail only those ships
to the non-OECD countries for recycling, which are made completely
hazardous/toxic contained, free from every corner/structure of the ship before
being auctioned.䠼span style>༯span>This has been suppressed.
GMB has colluded to
misled the Hon'ble Court. ༯span>
༯span>
The judgement has
a erred in stating that "I.A. No.61 of 2012 which had been filed by M/s
Best Oasis Ltd. on 9th May, 2012, and I.A. No.62 of 2012 filed by Gopal Krishna
on 18th June, 2012."
༯span>
The fact is I.A
No. 61 is subsequent to the I.A No. 62 (but numbered earlier due to registry's
fault) in which Sanjay P Mehta of Hongkong based Best Oasis Company, (a subsidiary of Bhavnagar
༯span>based Priya Blue Industries Pvt Ltd)had
sought interim directions specifically referring to Gopal Krishna's application.
Their application is attached.
༯span>
In the I.A.62 application
it was held that US Maritime Administration is transferring its end-of-life
ships in furtherance of its Ship Disposal Policy. It is known that in the year
2000-2001, the owner of Priya Blue Industries Pvt Ltd, Sanjay P Mehta has been
in the ship recycling business as he was engaged with ㍁RUTI METALS, LLC䠩n
the US as a advisor at the recycling Site at Brownsville, Texas. It was involved in the dismantling of United
States Adventure, a US Navy vessel as per the requirements of US Maritime
Administration [MARAD] an agency within the US Department of Transportation.
After the entrepreneurs of the "MARUTI METALS LLC" decided to close
their business in US, Shri Mehta moved to India to further continue his
recycling business in Alang-Sosiya, Gujarat India. Its 100% subsidiary, Best
Oasis Limited, a newly formed company and a part of "Priya Blue
Group" which is a "CASH BUYER" that purchases vessels on
"As is Where is basis" to deliver the same for ship dismantling at
Alang beach at the convenience of ship owners from developed countries. Best
Oasis Limited is a purchaser, seller and financer of end-of-life ships.
༯span>
The
end-of-life
ship was purchased in March 2012 by a US based company Global Marketing
Systems
(GMS), which is one of the biggest, cash buyers for dead ships. It was
sold to
Best Oasis Company for about $16 million. The Bill of Sale of the ship
alone
can reveal its true or latent value. Neither teh purchase agreement nor
the
Bill of sale nor any evdience of ownership of the ship was submitted to
the
Court. The ship had changed flag from US to Panama to Sierra Leone. When
it
entered Indian waters it was under Sierra Leone flag but its validity
had
already expired. As a result as of today it is a flagless ship. This is
akin to
what happned in the case of Danish ship Riky which entered Indian waters
under
a flag of a country (ROXA) which does not exist with the collusion of
Environment Ministry official. The matter is still pending in the Court.
This journey of violation of Basel
Convention and Hon'ble Court's order from Riky, Blue Lady, Platinum II
to Exxon
Valdez has ruined Alang beach and turned it in to India's most toxic hot
spot
and migrant workers graveyard. ༯span>༯span>༯span>༯span>༯span>༯span>༯span>༯span>༯span>༯span>
༯span>
As
per the order
dated 03.05.2012 and the judgment dated 06.07.2012 Basel Convention
applies. In
the first order dated 14.01.2003, which was coated with approval and the
subsequent order dated 06.09.2007, prior decontamination by the Country
of
export is required before Ship can be allowed entry in the territorial
waters. This ship is in non-compliance with the recommendations of
the Hon'ble Court constituted Inter-ministerial committee (IMC) on
ship-breaking under Union Steel Ministry.
༯span>
It is for US Maritime Administration (US MARAD), US
Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the ship owner in question to
disclose the original inventory of hazardous and radioactive materials on board
the vessel, ex Exxon Valdez. This was not demanded.
༯span>
TWA wonders how can visual inspection by MoEF, GPCB and
Gujarat Maritime Board verify presence or absence of PCBs and other hazardous
substances in the absence of required laboratory facility.
༯span>
The entry permission, anchoring permission and
inspection was granted in violation of Supreme Court order of May 3, 2012 and order
dated July 6, 2012. Anchoring has been granted
even without looking at inventory submitted by the Ship for the purpose of
verification.
༯span>
There was a need to pierce the corporate veil by examining
the current and past ownership documents of this end-of-life vessel to
ascertain its past and future liabilities. Industrialized countries like USA
should not be allowed to dump their junk into the developing countries like
India on the account of easy availability of vulnerable and disposable
workforce and alien coastal ecosystem. The eagerness to profit from one of the
world's dirtiest industries, the dismantling of toxic ships by migrant and
casual workers from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha at Alang beach
is fraught with disastrous environmental and occupational health consequences.
༯span>
In such a situation, there is still a compelling reason for
this ex- US ship to be sent away from the Indian waters. It is trying to repeat
the story of another dubious dead US ship Platinum II (ex SS Independence, MV
Oceanic) to set a bad a precedent. Upholding UNⳊBasel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes
and Their Disposal is a compulsion because India is a party to it. ༯span>༯span>༯span>
༯span>
For Details: Gopal Krishna,
ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA), Mb: 9818089660,༯span>E-mail-krishna1715@gmail.com, Web:toxicswatch.blogspot.com
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