Govt set to clear Rs 983 crore for Bhopal victims

NEW DELHI: The Centre has decided to explore the feasibility of securing the extradition of former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson, besides hiking the compensation for the Bhopal gas victims who look poised to get an additional package of Rs 982.75 crore.

The decisions to secure the custody and enhance compensation for victims 26 years after the disaster brings out the pressure being felt by the Centre because of the popular outrage in the aftermath of the meagre punishment meted out by a trial court in Bhopal earlier this month.

While Anderson’s extradition is doubtful, given his age and health, the government does not want to leave room for any impression that it did not try hard enough. The presence of foreign secretary Nirupama Rao at the meeting of the Group of Ministers on the Bhopal gas leak on Friday was a clear indication that the issue, despite doubts about its practicality, was very much on the table.

Also, the Centre feels that it should go ahead with the clean-up of the toxic site while pursuing the case on the liability of Dow Chemicals in the MP High Court.

Law minister Veerappa Moily has been tasked to explore the prospect of a review of the three judicial verdicts — including the trial court verdict of June 7 and the 1996 Supreme Court order which diluted the charges. When the GoM met on Friday, for the first time in UPA-2 , there were clear signs of a sense of urgency among members to address the feeling of victims that they have been given short shrift.

Victims to move SC for clean water

Residents of 13 localities around the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal first bore the brunt of the gas leak in 1984 and are now suffering contamination of ground water by hazardous waste from the plant. “We will soon move the Supreme Court to revive the 15-year-old matter in which it had in 2004 directed the Madhya Pradesh government to supply clean drinking water to the residents,” counsel Sanjay Parikh told TOI.

With the chorus for Warren Anderson’s extradition snowballing into a major political controversy, Congress has played it safe by leaving all decisions about the former Union Carbide boss and other Bhopal related issues to the group of ministers.

The party on Friday said that the GoM which was going into every aspect of the 1984 disaster, would come out with the necessary recommendations . “Whether it is the issue of reassessing (Anderson’s ) guilt or rehabilitation of the gas victims, all the decisions will be taken by the GoM,” Congress spokesman Mohan Prakash told reporters.

Ever since the controversy erupted over the judgment by a Bhopal court earlier this month, Congress has strongly defended late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, dismissing all allegations of his role in Anderson’s exit from the country.

Sensing Opposition attempts to bring Rajiv into the controversy, the party went to the extent of claiming that the “nationalist credentials of those maligning” the late PM were suspect.