A Free Pass for toxic ships

Too often in recent times we have heard the news of ships with Toxic materials heading India's way for ship breaking, and the government doing nothing until the Supreme court intervening. Inspite of being aware of the pollution that a Toxic ship might introduce to the eco system, the government has been sitting tight lipped on the issue. It has been left to organisations like Green peace to protect the Indian waters from the poisoning that a toxic ship like Blue lady could do when being broken down.

There is no denying that ship breaking industry is big in Alang, Gujrat where it has helped improve social status of quite a few workers. India alone has 60% of the worlds ship breaking business and all of that is done in Alang, which is also the worlds largest scrapping site.
Officially, India does not allow toxic ships to be broken in its sites. This is in accordance to the Basel convention, an UN environmental program treaty that places onus on exporting nations rather than importers. However we have seen in the past few months atleast a couple of incidents (as with Le Clemenceau and Blue lady) that proved otherwise. The French ship 'Le Clemenceau', an aircraft carrier was turned back only after Green Peace created awareness of the Toxic nature of the ship and organised demonstrations against letting the ship and finally when the supreme court intervened.Even though the onus was on France to make sure the ship was toxic free, Indian Government should have acted given that we were to be the ones being affected.

The Silence of the government is puzzling. What measures is the government going to take to make sure that this saga is not repeated. Inspite of having a 'Ministry of Environment and Forest', and a Pollution control board in Gujrat and every other state, which is supposed to be the watch dog for such activites, how was the ship given a clearance? If it wasnt for the sustained efforts of Green peace, and the intervention of the supreme court, these ships would be in the scrapping yards already. What is the need to pollute our environment and risk lives by accepting to let these toxic ships. On whose greater intrests is the Ministry of Environment acting? This story is only getting intresting with many unanswered questions.