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Title : Victims protest Bhopal gas disaster verdict

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Date : 29 June 2010 1654 hrs (SST)
URL : http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/southasia/view/1066473/1/.html

INDIA : The Indian government is facing protests, despite agreeing to pay more
compensation to victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, which has been dubbed as the
world's worst industrial accident, after claiming more than 15,000 lives.

The victims of the toxic gas leak in central India had to wait more than 25 years to
get the relief funds.

Quresha Bi is one of the victims.

Like thousands of others, she was sleeping on a fateful night of December 1984 in
Bhopal, when a toxic gas leak suffocated her family of five to death.

She was lucky to survive, but has to relive the tragedy everyday as she battles
diseases, and waits to be compensated.

"After the gas leak, I got a heart attack. Now I am a heart patient. I feel suffocated
and find it difficult to walk. I have also been diagnosed with cancer. I have
undergone several operations. My life is hanging in the balance. And all I got in
compensation was US$650," said the Bhopal gas tragedy victim.

The Bhopal gas tragedy returned to the headlines, after a trial court recently served
two-year jail terms to eight accused people, who were working at the Union Carbide
factory at that time.

Activists held angry protests, against what they saw as a 'mild punishment' for
causing deaths of more than 15,000 people.

The government has decided to file a petition against the judgment.

It will also give an additional compensation of US$300 million to the victims.

"We have dealt with all the issues, compensation, legal issues, including the issues
of pursuing the extradition of Warren Anderson (who headed Union Carbide at that
time), the legal options available with the government of India and most importantly,
remediation matters and health related matters," said Palaniappan Chidambaram,
India's Home Minister.

But not many are happy with the government's slow response to the case.

Activists also want the government to put more liability on American based company
Dow Chemicals, that now owns Union Carbide.

At the time of the disaster, Union Carbide had paid a meager US$470 million for the
clean-up of the site, as well as compensation to about hundred thousand victims and

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their families.

Rachna Dhingra, member of the Bhopal group for Information and Action said: "The
GoM (Group of Ministers) has taken no steps to hold Dow Chemicals responsible for
the liabilities in Bhopal. It continues to do business in our country.

"We want the prime minister to attach all the properties of Dow Chemicals so that it
pays for the environmental damage, water contamination and the health damage
that it has caused to the people around the factory where the water and soil is
contaminated."

Toxic waste from the factory still seeps into the water in Bhopal.

And the man who headed Union Carbide at that time - Warren Anderson - is most
wanted by India.

He was detained in Bhopal at the time of the disaster in 1984, but was let go
allegedly under political pressure. He now lives a retired life in New York.

Meanwhile the Indian government has renewed the probe to get him extradited amid
growing public and media pressure.

Many companies in America are waiting to do business in generating nuclear energy

here. But the Bhopal disaster has exposed the fact that the country does not have
strong corporate liability laws.

In the case of another Bhopal-like accident, the government cannot afford to look the
other way and is working to fix a minimum liability amount on companies. - CNA /ls

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