MY SQUARE

Rs 10 lakh for kin of dead
Rs 1265-cr package for Bhopal gas victims

The Centre on Thursday announced a Rs 1,265.56-crore package for providing compensation to the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

The government also decided to push for extradition of the former Union Carbide Corporation chairman Warren Anderson from the US and file a curative petition in the Supreme Court against its September 13, 1996, judgment that had quashed charges against Anderson and other accused under graver sections of the IPC and confined the trial to the offences under Section 304 (A).

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided that Attorney General G E Vahanvati would examine if a curative petition could be filed in the SC for raising the Union Carbide’s civil liability, which had been settled at $470 million in 1989.

The Centre will also move the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur to expeditiously decide the question of liability of Dow Chemicals or any other successor of the UCC or its subsidiary the Union Carbide Corporation Limited that owned the pesticide plant in Bhopal.

Home Minister P Chidambaram said the Cabinet had accepted all the 22 recommendations made by the Group of Ministers.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said the government would make an additional ex gratia payment to nearly 45,000 victims of the tragedy — Rs 10 lakh for the family of each of the dead, Rs 5 lakh for each victim with permanent disability and Rs 2 lakh for every victim who had cancer and total renal failure due to exposure to the deadly Methyl Isocyanate gas that leaked from the Union Carbide Corporation Limited’s pesticide plant.

She said victims who had suffered temporary disability would get Rs 1 lakh as ex gratia.
The Cabinet decided that the CBI and other agencies would put together additional information required to pursue India’s pending plea to the US for the extradition of Anderson.

New Delhi had repeatedly — first in 2003 and the latest in 2008 — requested Washington to hand over Anderson to stand trial in India in accordance with the bilateral extradition treaty. But the US Department of Justice turned down the requests citing “missing evidentiary links” and stating that the extradition request did not meet the requirement of the Article 2.1 and Article 9.3 of the treaty.

Soni said the Ministry of External Affairs would “press the request for extradition” of Anderson with the US government after the concerned agencies collect “additional information”.

The Centre would spend Rs 310 crore for environmental remediation in and around the UCIL plant. It will also take steps to claim restitution from the persons or companies found liable for the damage on the principle of “polluter pays”.