A woman at a gas tragedy survivors’ rally in Bhopal on Tuesday. (PTI)

Nagpur, July 19: The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court today directed the Maharashtra government not to allow or accept the entry of any toxic and hazardous waste from Bhopal’s Union Carbide plant into the state.

The directions were issued to the government through the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) on a PIL filed by Vidarbha Environmentalists’ Action Group; Janmanch, a citizens’ body; and BJP’s west Nagpur MLA Devendra Fadnavis.

The high court listed the case for hearing on July 21, when the MPCB is to file its reply. Maharashtra environment secretary Valsa Nair has meanwhile written to the Madhya Pradesh government that it would need permission from the MPCB for transport and disposal of the 350 tonnes of toxic waste at a Defence Research Development Organisation facility near Nagpur.

The petition was necessitated by a Madhya Pradesh high court order of July 12 in a 2004 PIL directing the state government, the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), and the ministry of environment and forests to take “temporary steps” within 10 days for packing, transporting and disposing off the waste in Nagpur.

The DRDE had filed an affidavit before the Madhya Pradesh high court that it had the facility in Nagpur to dispose waste lying at the plant for 26 years. Rattled by the order, environmentalists sprung into action and moved Bombay High Court seeking directions to the Maharashtra government to disallow the entry of the waste into Nagpur.

The environmentalists are opposed to its disposal saying the facility is not adequate.

Bombay High Court’s two-judge bench of Justices B.P. Dharmadhikari and P.D. Kode has also asked the petitioners to file an intervention petition before the Madhya Pradesh high court at Jabalpur in the ongoing PIL when it comes up for hearing on July 28.