The Jabalpur High Court has permitted the State Government to open the gates of Union Carbide factory to the public for a fortnight. Talking to The Pioneer, Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Babulal Gaur said the High Court had permitted the Government to go ahead with its plan to allow the public to enter the Union Carbide factory premises. He said, "I have convened a meeting of the officials of the Department to decide the dates when the premises would be open for the people." The Government's decision had come in for flak from the NGOs working for the welfare of the gas victims because Gaur had said the waste lying in the Union Carbide factory premises for the past 25 years were no longer toxic enough to adversely affect the human beings. If the Supreme Court allows it, the Madhya Pradesh Government would dispose of the waste in the State itself. He had also said even the groundwater around the factory site, which was earlier considered to be contaminated due to the deadly gas leak on December 2, 1984, did not have anything to do with the disaster. Gaur had based his statements on the basis of two recent reports, which had concurred that the waste were no more toxic. The Defence Reasearch and Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior, conducted tests on samples collected from the factory site last year and concluded that "(i) All the samples viz. excavated waste, lime sludge, naphthol tar, reactor residue, semi-processed pesticide and sevin tar have very low mammalian toxicity; and (ii) Based on the primary skin irritation test, all the six samples collected from 'Stored Toxic Wastes at the former UCIL, plant site at Bhopal' are non-irritant." Based on this report, the State Government sought an opinion from National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, whether it was safe to open the factory site for the public for 15 days on the occasion of the 25 years of the disaster. NEERI had also given a go ahead in the matter. Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh during his visit to the factory site in September, had courted controversy by holding a handful of the waste and commented that he was alive and not even coughing after the adventure. Buoyed over these developments, the State Government had decided to open the gates for the public for 15 days from the third week of November. But it had to approach the court since there was a ban on opening of gates for the public from the court itself. For the first time since the disaster took place, the common man would be free to move inside the killer factory's premises. The dates for public entry have yet to be finalised.