Who will clean up the waste lying at the site of the Bhopal gas disaster? And when?

Months before the 25th anniversary of what is known as the world’s worst industrial disaster, the clean-up at the 67-acre factory site has become a buck passed from one state to another, one agency to another. No one has even put an exact number to the amount of waste, its chemical composition and what effect it has had on the ground.

For years, the state government and the Centre had a fig leaf: the waste should lie untouched awaiting the long-drawn legal battle that’s currently on to figure out whether it’s Dow’s liability. Dow Chemicals bought Union Carbide in 2001 and denies any legal liability in dealing with the waste.

But at a meeting of officials from Madhya Pradesh and the Centre on June 3, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed concern over the waste and directed the state government to “expedite the process.”

That’s easier said than done.

• In 2004, the Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered the constitution of a task force under the chairmanship of Secretary, Department of Chemical and Petrochemicals, to monitor “overall environmental remediation,” which includes the clean-up.

• The next year, after reports that Sevin tar — the pesticide that Union Carbide manufactured — was leaking from one of the storage tanks, the Madhya Pradesh government collected 386 tonnes of waste in sacks and barrels which were then stored in a concrete godown in one corner of the factory site.

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