The Hague-based Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) recently carried out inspections of two Indian chemical companies based in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

According to sources in the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals (DCPC), the OPCW carried out inspections of Gujarat Insecticides Ltd, Ankleshwar, which is an OCP facility and Viswaat Chemical Limited, Thane, Maharashtra, a Schedule 3 facility under the Chemicals Weapons Convention (CWC).

Till November there have been 91 OPCW inspections including 16 in the first 11 months of 2011, the DCPC said.

To create awareness among the stakeholders on the obligations under CWC, and the CWC Act and to improve the quality of declarations by the industry, a series of awareness generation programmes were held last year at various locations in the country with a concentration of chemical industry relevant to CWC.

In November 2010, two such programmes were held in Kolkata and Bangalore, which were attended by senior representatives of the chemical industry and other stakeholders.

The DCPC is responsible for submission of industry declarations, facilitation of inspections by OPCW teams as also creating awareness in the industry about its obligations under CWC.

According to the DCPC, no negative comments have been received so far from the OPCW.

Certain toxic chemicals and their precursors are covered under the ambit of the CWC, of which India is a signatory.

The facilities manufacturing such chemicals file declarations to DCPC for onward submission to OPCW under the provisions of CWC Act, 2000. The declaration inter alia contains plant site address, production, processing, consumption and import and export data.