MP CM's office returns RTI on Anderson's escape

NEW DELHI: The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister's office has returned an RTI application seeking details of escape of the then Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson from India, saying it does not have post of Public Information Officer.

The office returned the application of social activist S C Agrawal saying there was no position of "Central Public Information Officer" in the office of the Chief Minister.

Agrawal had sought to know if it was true that the then Chief Minister Arjun Singh assisted in the escape of Anderson from Bhopal on December 17, 1984.

He had also asked about action taken against Arjun Singh by present Madhya Pradesh government and those guilty for the escape of Anderson.

According to RTI Act, it is mandatory for every government office in the country to appoint a Central Public Information Officer to facilitate the answering of RTI applications sent to it.

26 years after the world's worst industrial disaster that had left over 15,000 people dead, a local court on June 7 convicted former Union Carbide India chairman Keshub Mahindra and six others in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy and sentenced them to two-year jail term. However, there was no word about Anderson in the judgement delivered by CJM Mohan P Tiwari.

89-year-old Anderson, who lives in the US, left the country soon after the tragedy and was declared an absconder.

The verdict has came under attack from various sections of society, including civil rights activists and political parties.