The government is not likely to succeed in reopening the settlement issue in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, said noted jurist Fali S Nariman.
Its been 25 years since the world's worst industrial and environment disaster ever -- the Bhopal gas tragedy -- claimed scores of lives. However, there seems to be no end to the victims' woes.
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.
A Bhopal sessions court adjourned hearing on the petition challenging the trial court's verdict awarding 2 years' imprisonment to seven Union Carbide executives, including its former India Chairman Keshub Mahindra, in Bhopal gas tragedy case. District and Sessions Court Judge Subhash Kakde will hear the submissions on Wednesday.
Did the Indian government guarantee Dow Chemicals, the parent company of Union Carbide, that it will not be held liable for the Bhopal gas tragedy?
Meetings and protest marches in support of the demands of the victims marked the 29th anniversary of the Bhopal gas catastrophe here today.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday filed an appeal in the sessions court in Bhopal, seeking enhancement of the light punishment of two years of imprisonment awarded to convicts, including the then Union Carbide of India Ltd Chairman Keshub Mahindra, in the Bhopal gas tragedy case.
The book, Advocacy After Bhopal: Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global Orders, brought the prize to Kim Fortun.
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.
A complaint has been filed in a local court here for registration of a criminal case against former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Arjun Singh for allegedly releasing the then Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson in a wrong manner after the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
Judicial proceedings against Warren Anderson, proclaimed offender in the over two-decade old Bhopal gas leak case, are still pending in the United States. "Since Warren Anderson was declared a proclaimed offender during trial, the trial against him, M/s Union Carbide Corporation, USA is still pending," the CBI said in response to an RTI query.
If the Bhopal judgment results in independent directors and CEOs/plant managers waking up to their responsibilities, that can only be a good thing.
The government on Tuesday approved the disposal of nearly 350 metric tonnes of Union Carbide toxic waste in Bhopal by a German company. The approval was given following recommendations from a Group of Ministers on the Bhopal gas tragedy, chaired by Home Minister P C Chidambaram, officials said.
Senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani on Thursday night suggested that the government, instead of trying to bring back former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson, should ensure action against those who had enabled him to leave India in 1984 after the Bhopal gas leak tragedy.
Under tremendous pressure from India to drop Dow Chemicals as London Olympics sponsors, the Games' organising committee chief Sebastian Coe said they are ready to meet the activists protesting against the company because of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
Government on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking enhancement of compensation from Rs 750 crore to Rs 7,700 crore for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in which more than 5,000 people were killed due to leakage of poisonous gas from the Union Carbide factory.
The Congress has termed as "outrageous" and "ridiculous" the allegations that the Rajiv Gandhi government had assured "safe passage" to Union Carbide Chief Warren Anderson before he came to India in the aftermath of the deadly 1984 Bhopal gas leakage that killed thousands.
Details of use of state government plane to ferry Union Carbide Chairman Warren Anderson out of Bhopal in 1984 are not available with the Madhya Pradesh government, state's aviation directorate has said.
A sessions court on Tuesday upheld a 2010 verdict of a trial court in the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy case while dismissing the Central Bureau of Investigation's petition seeking re-trial and enhancement of sentence awarded to former Union Carbide officials.
Dow Chemical Company is once bitten, twice shy. Close on the heels of its US parent's move to deny liability for damages resulting from the Bhopal gas tragedy at a plant run by Union Carbide (a company it had bought), Dow India has called off a greenfield project to establish a research & development facility in Maharashtra.
A Delhi court on Wednesday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation to seek extradition of Union Carbide Corporation chairman Warren Anderson, an accused in the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy case, from the United States.
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
The US has dismissed as "incorrect" reports that it is linking India's efforts to seek more compensation from the Union Carbide in the Bhopal gas tragedy with the bilateral investment ties, saying it is committed to building a strong relationship with the country.
The Group of Ministers on Bhopal gas tragedy is understood to have decided on Sunday to recommend filing of a curative petition in the Supreme Court to fix criminal liability, seek extradition of former Union Carbide Corp CEO Warren Anderson and cleaning up the complex by burying the toxic waste.
The trial court in the Bhopal gas tragedy case has held the owners of the Union Carbide pesticide plant, the Indian government and 'to some extent' the government of Madhya Pradesh responsible for the magnitude of the disaster. "The problem was worsened by the plant's location near a densely populated area, non-existent catastrophe plans and shortcomings in health care and socio-economic rehabilitation," said the judgment delivered by Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohan P Tiwari.
The Union cabinet will discuss the report of the Group of Ministers on the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy on Thursday.
The Bhopal Gas Relief and Rehabilitation Department is talking to the Indian Army and the Delhi-based National Institute of Disaster Management to help remove the toxic waste lying in the premises of the closed Union Carbide for the last 24 years. Last month, the department requested the Indian Army to help dispose of the waste.
Even after the passage of 27 years, a consensus -- between the government and the non-government -- on the number of victims of Bhopal gas disaster is elusive.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Union Carbide Corporation, Dow Chemicals and others on a Centre's plea seeking enhancement of compensation to the victims of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy from Rs 750 crore to Rs 7,700 crore.
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.
Congress leader Arjun Singh finally broke his silence over the Bhopal gas tragedy on Wednesday during a rare appearance in the Rajya Sabha. The septuagenarian leader, who was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh when the Bhopal gas tragedy took place, arrived in a wheel chair soon after Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad initiated a discussion on the issue. "I felt that Union Carbide CEO) Warren Anderson should be arrested," he said.
'Arjun Singh was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh back in 1984. He is still on Indian soil, and, presumably, available for questioning.'
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, Madhya Pradesh government has decided to throw open for public the defunct Union carbide factory that claimed thousands of lives following leakage of toxic gases.
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.
Terming court's decision to summon Dow Chemicals in the Bhopal gas tragedy case as an "important step", Amnesty International today demanded that the company must acknowledge its responsibility towards the survivors of the 1984 industrial disaster.
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.
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.
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.
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.
