Will India turn away the Blue Lady?

A non-governmental organisation on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking to restrain cruise liner S S Norway from being dismantled in Alang in Gujarat.

The application was mentioned before a bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat. The bench asked the high-powered expert committee, which was constituted at the time Le Clemenceau was headed for Alang, to examine the ship and submit the report in July.

According to Greenpeace, S S Norway is one of the top 50 toxic ships in the world and it allegedly carries over 900 tons of asbestos apart from other globally-banned toxic substances.

Is India the world's dumping ground?

The environment watchdog claimed that the cruiser, popularly known as 'Blue Lady', left the Malaysian coast on Friday last and is expected to reach Alang by May 23.

Image: File photograph of the S S Norway sailing in Malaysian territorial waters.
Photograph: Tengku Bahar/AFP/Getty Images