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Clemenceau stranded by Indian Supreme Court order
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said it will not permit the decommissioned French aircraft carrier, Clemenceau, to dock in the country as it is carrying toxic waste.However, the apex court also modified the order after the owners said they would satisfy the court that the ship has no pollutants on board. Shipping Decommissioning Industry Corporation (SDIC), the French owners, also gave an undertaking that Clemenceau will not enter India's exclusive economic zone while the matter is sub-judice. The two-judge bench comprising justices Arijit Pasayat and S.H. Kapadia said: "We don't want the environment to be polluted. When the French government had not permitted the ship to be broken there, why should we allow the ship to come to India?" "Whether breaking the ship will result in pollution or not is immaterial. The best thing will be to ask the ship to go back from where it started," the court observed. The observation came when the bench took up for consideration the report of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Waste that met in Mumbai earlier this month, stating that the ship should not be allowed to enter Indian waters as it contained a large quantity of asbestos. Clemenceau, heading for the Alang ship-breaking yard in Gujarat, is facing protests from environmental groups in India who say it is carrying 45 tons of hazardous asbestos. Posted by: john 2006-01-16 |
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