New panel to examine Clemenceau issue

    New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a new expert panel to be set up to examine whether the decommissioned French warship Le Clemenceau should be scrapped in the country after an earlier committee was unable to arrive at any decision in this regard.

    The judges criticised the court's Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes for "total non-application of mind" after it submitted two reports last week. The judges said the new panel should be made up of four or five members and asked the Government to propose names by Friday. The apex court repeated an earlier order that the warship -- which served in the 1991 Gulf War - should not be allowed to enter Indian waters until it gave a final verdict. "The court has found that the 10 members of the committee are not experts in ship breaking. That is why we need to have experts from the Indian Navy and DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) to be associated with the Supreme Court Committee," said Vijay Panjwani, lawyer for the Central Pollution Control Board, which is one of the agencies, the Supreme Court said, could be included in the "new monitoring committee."

    The Court also imposed a ban on demonstrations and the publishing of opinions on whether the decommissioned aircraft carrier, should be broken down in India. "The Supreme Court today came down heavily on NGOs (Non Governmental Organisation) for writing articles in newspapers, giving interviews, for organizing "Dharnas" because the Court said that media trial will not be permitted in this case," Panjwani said. "If people continue to go to the media giving their views about many issues involved in this case then the Court will take contempt of Court proceedings against such persons or NGOs," Panjwani added. The ban would affect environmental groups, such as Greenpeace, which have mounted a protest against the entry of the 27,000- tonne Le Clemenceau to the Alang scrapping yard in Gujarat, saying it contains hundreds of tonnes of toxic material that could damage the health of workers. French officials have said they have removed most of the ship's dangerous asbestos, leaving only 45 tonnes needed to make the ship seaworthy. The French ambassador to India, Dominique Girard has further said that Paris was ready to take back any toxic waste removed from the decommissioned warship.

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