India seeks to double Bhopal compensation

NEW DELHI: The Indian government is seeking to more than double the compensation paid by a US chemical company for the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster to 1.1 billion dollars, a government lawyer said on Friday.

The lawyer from the attorney general's office, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the government had filed a case in the Supreme Court demanding compensation of 50 billion rupees (1.1 billion dollars).

Last year, the government said it would look into how to retroactively increase the amount of compensation paid for the accident, which was initially set at 470 million dollars in a settlement reached in 1989.