The Congress Core Committee met on Thursday evening to discuss the Bhopal gas leak and to give directions to the Group of Ministers who would be meeting on Friday afternoon to find a way of breaking the impasse created by the court verdict in handing out punishment to the guilty, said highly placed sources.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its judgement on the plea of the Central Bureau of Investigation for prosecuting Bhopal gas tragedy case accused, who have escaped with lighter punishment of two years jail term, under the stringent penal provision attracting maximum ten years of imprisonment.
Madhya Pradesh police have registered five cases against protesters in Pithampur who opposed the planned disposal of 337 tonnes of toxic waste linked to the Bhopal gas tragedy. Protests erupted on Friday after the waste reached Ramky Enviro company, where the incineration is to be carried out. Authorities imposed prohibitory orders, and police dispersed a mob that marched to the company premises. Two people attempted self-immolation during the protests, but were prevented by the crowd. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said the state government only transported the waste with safety parameters in compliance with court orders.
India has an appalling record on industrial safety.
Claiming that over 14,000 victims of the infamous 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy were "not traceable," the Centre on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to grant it permission for closing down their compensation claims estimated at Rs 50 crore.
Amid questions over how the then Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson fled India, the central government said on Thursday that the group of ministers set up on the Bhopal gas tragedy issue will look into all aspects related to the incident and facts would be presented before the nation.
The government is not likely to succeed in reopening the settlement issue in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, said noted jurist Fali S Nariman.
United States-based Union Carbide Corporation has filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding early hearing on the government's curative petition in the Bhopal gas disaster case, saying delays are being used to besmirch the reputation of its parent firm, Dow Chemicals. UCC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, in the petition sought a fixed timetable for hearing and early disposal of the curative petition filed by the Union government in December 2010.
His statement came against the backdrop of a controversy kicked off by his email to Ahluwalia.
Former Union Carbide India chairman Keshub Mahindra and four others, who were convicted on June 7 in the Bhopal gas leak case, were on Tuesday granted bail by a local court. UCIL former managing director Vijay Gokhle, former vice president Kishore Kamdar, former works manager J Mukund and former production manager S P Choudhry were granted bail by Chief Judicial Magistrate R V Singh.
In the backdrop of outrage over the trial court's verdict in the Bhopal gas tragedy, the government on Thursday announced a Rs 1265.56-crore package and decided to file a curative petition in Supreme Court, besides pushing for the extradition of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson. The Union Cabinet, which considered the report of the Group of Ministers on the 1984 disaster, accepted all its 22 recommendations, but did not fix liability on anybody.
According to the sources in the government, in a major U-turn, the Union law ministry has submitted a note to the Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram on the Bhopal gas tragedy, where it has, reportedly, recommended that the government of India should undertake the cleanup operation of the site of Union Carbide.
Home Minister P Chidamabaram said that the Group of Ministers on Bhopal Gas leak disaster will finalise its report on Monday."The GoM will have two sessions on Saturday and Sunday, the Home Minister said.
It has agreed to submit a 'no objection' statement to an American court for directing Union Carbide to clean up the contamination caused by its abandoned factory in the Madhya Pradesh capital.
T N Ninan writes on how the United States is handling the BP oil spill disaster and what India needed to do in the horrific Bhopal gas tragedy.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the Central Bureau of Investigation for approaching it 16 years after it had diluted in September 1996 the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy case.
A synergy of the 'very worst' of American and Indian cultures led to the Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984, a local court has held, adding that Union Carbide cynically used a third world country to escape from the strict safety standards imposed at home."The tragedy was caused by the synergy of the very worst of American and Indian cultures. An American corporation cynically used a third world country to escape from the strict safety standards imposed at home," said the judge.
Here are other gas leaks that made headlines in the last few years:
The reconstituted Group of Ministers on the Bhopal gas tragedy will meet on Friday, Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday, a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked the panel to submit its report to the Cabinet in 10 days.
Former Chief Justice of India A M Ahmadi, whose dilution of charges in the Bhopal gas case has created a storm, on Saturday said he would not like to enter into the blame game over the issue of accused getting light punishment.
The GoM, headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram, that went into a whole range of issues, including relief and rehabilitation of the victims, is believed to have recommended payment of Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin of the dead in the world's worst industrial disaster nearly 26 years ago.
Mittal said any company, which does business that can cause loss of life of a magnitude where an entire township could be wiped out, needs to be responsible enough not only on technology but also that the backup is enough.
Reuters reported that a spokesman for Dow's Union Carbide denied the report.
Incineration of entire 358 tonnes of toxic waste from the defunct Union Carbide factory finally concluded as contaminated soil and packaging material were burnt at a disposal plant in Madhya Pradesh's Pithampur on Thursday, over six months after the consignment was brought to the unit.
Two women survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy will go on an indefinite hunger strike here from May 1 to press Dow Chemicals, the present owner of Union Carbide, to own up responsibility for the tragedy and assume the liabilities.
Photojournalist Chandu Mhatre, one of the first to reach Bhopal after India's worst industrial disaster ravaged the city, remembers his worst seven days, in a conversation with Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com.
Pablo Bartholomew, the legendary Indian photojournalist whose searing images from the Bhopal gas tragedy stunned a nation's conscience 30 years ago, speaks to Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com.
The unloading of 337 tonnes of hazardous waste from the defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal began at an incineration unit in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. The exercise, which commenced amid protests from locals concerned about its impact on health and environment, is being carried out following safety regulations. The waste, comprising soil, reactor residues, pesticide remnants, and other materials, has been transported from Bhopal to Pithampur for disposal. The Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board has asserted that the chemical effects of certain substances in the waste have diminished. The local administration has launched an awareness campaign to address concerns regarding the disposal process.
Sanjeeb Mukherjee, who was eight years old when the deadly gas leaked from Union Carbide's factory, gives his account of living in the city during that fateful period
In a major blow to victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, a United States court has ruled that the Union Carbide Corporation cannot be sued for the ongoing contamination from the chemical plant.
The world had lost an opportunity to know long-term toxic effects of Methyl Isocyanate which had leaked from the Union Carbide factory on the night of December 2, 1984, because government research agencies have lost track of a bulk of survivors, says Dinesh C Sharma.
'All the political parties did nothing. These parties talk of helping the poor but no one actually did anything,' says social activist Abdul Jabber.
A TV channel reproduced Anderson and Arjun Singh's bytes, before the Union Carbide chief left the country on December 7, 1984, three days after the world's worst industrial disaster. "House arrest or no arrest or bail, no bail, I am free to go home...There is a law of the United States...India, bye, bye, Thank you," Anderson had said.
In a bizarre incident, a national-level shooter recently lost his left thumb when the 10m air pistol cylinder he was filling exploded, at the Karni Singh Range.
Questioning Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for holding two bungalows in the state capital, Aam Aadmi Party workers tried to stage a protest in front of one of the accommodations but were prevented by the police.
Deepak Kher was one of many volunteers who chipped in in the aftermath of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy which killed over thousands of people in one night, and damaged the future of many others. He recounts his experience on the tragic night and the days that followed.
The Madhya Pradesh high court in Jabalpur on Monday directed the state government to take steps within six weeks for disposal of Bhopal-based Union Carbide's 337 tonnes of hazardous waste as per safety protocols, while restraining the media from publishing any fake news on the same.
Activists burnt the US flag and logos of Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals - as they have done nothing to end the sufferings of the victims for the last 32 years.
Reaffirming its stand, the International Olympic Committee Wednesday rejected calls from the Indian Government to drop Dow Chemicals as sponsor of the London Games because of its links to the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
