In a setback to the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, a United States court has held that neither Union Carbide nor its former chairman Warren Anderson were liable for environmental remediation or pollution-related claims emanating from the world's worst industrial accident.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The quest of Bhopal victims for justice must continue and till the truth prevails because it is not their struggle victims of Bhopal alone. It is a litmus test that will determine that what prevails in the conflict between naked lust for profit at any human cost and public health of the present and future generations, says Gopal Krishna.
The Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday removed former Director General of Police (DGP) Swaraj Puri, who had played a key role in the release of the former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson, from the state-run Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA).
The Congress jumped into action as it found former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's name was being dragged into the ongoing controversy over Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson's disappearance from the country in December 1984 after a gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal killed tens of thousands of people.
Dubbing as "paltry" the relief announced recently for Bhopal disaster victims, the opposition on Wednesday demanded a substantial increase in it and asked the government to become a party to a petition filed in a US court to extract compensation from American firm Dow Chemicals.
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.
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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has sought an un-conditional apology from the Congress for misleading the country on the facts of Bhopal gas tragedy. Worse, the party said, the Congress is dubbing anyone who spoke against former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi as "anti-national and unpatriotic.
Veteran Congress leader Arjun Singh who was Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister at the time of the Bhopal gas disaster in December 1984 today said he would give "appropriate reply at an appropriate time" on the issue.
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.
Despite the attempts made by the opposition to keep the Bhopal tragedy alive, the Congress leadership has made efforts to put a deliberate closure on the issue.
As the prime minister asked the Group of Ministers on Bhopal tragedy to meet immediately, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is a member of the GoM, said on Monday that the panel can probe under what circumstances the industrial disaster took place and how the punishment for the culprits was reduced.
'Arjun Singh was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh back in 1984. He is still on Indian soil, and, presumably, available for questioning.'
Twenty-six years after one of the worst industrial disasters in the world -- the Bhopal gas tragedy -- claimed thousands of lives, a local court found all the eight accused guilty of criminal negligence in the case.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to clarify its stand on whether it wants to go ahead with its curative petition seeking Rs 7,844 crore as additional funds from successor firms of the US-based Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) for giving compensation to victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
The handling of the Bhopal disaster is reflective of the highly feudal nature of our political culture, writes AV Rajwade
The Union cabinet will discuss the report of the Group of Ministers on the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy on Thursday.
Senior Congress leader Arjun Singh, who is in the eye of a storm over the issue of safe passage given to the then Union Carbide Corporation chairman Warren Anderson in the wake of the Bhopal gas tragedy, has sought to lob the ball in the Centre's court and the party declined to join issue.
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.
Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily on Saturday attacked a top aide of Rajiv Gandhi for suggesting that the then prime minister may have had a role in the release of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson accused in Bhopal gas case, saying he was a new convert to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena camp.
The civil suit was filed on behalf of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, which killed thousands in 1984.
The Union Carbide Corporation gave a compensation of $470 million (Rs 715 crore) after the toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, killed over 3,000 people and affected 1.02 lakh others.
Even Charlton Heston intervened on his behalf.
'Why should we disclose classified information to satisfy those who doubt our Hydrogen Bomb capability?'
BJP alleged that banks were 'pushed' into giving Rs 3,100 crore loan to him and unfreezing his bank accounts in 2012.
Sushma Swaraj packs in the punches against the Congress.
Meetings and protest marches in support of the demands of the victims marked the 29th anniversary of the Bhopal gas catastrophe here today.
Families of the deceased and people who bore the brunt of the industrial disaster are now signing a petition, to be sent to the Supreme Court, requesting it to start hearing a curative petition of the government filed in December 2010 for more compensation.
Swaraj tore into the Congress, saying it had helped Bofors accused Ottavio Quattrocchi and Bhopal gas leak accused Warren Anderson flee from India.
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.
In his book Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer, makes a dig at Hardeep Singh Puri, former diplomat, Union minister and BJP nominee from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, for Rajiv's faulty Sri Lankan policy, writes Rasheed Kidwai.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday hit back at the Congress party for releasing pictures of Narendra Modi with Lalit Modi and alleged that it showed "political bankruptcy".
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to bring back former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi to face the law.
Aseem Chhabra and Sukanya Verma -post their predictions for the major categories.
The Power Of The Dog and Dune lead the pack while films like King Richard, Belfast and West Side Story grab quite a few noms.
Victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy have filed an appeal in a higher court in New York contesting a lower court's decision that Union Carbide Corporation cannot be sued for the ongoing contamination from the chemical plant.
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